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THE DAIMIO'S HEAD 
& OTHER MASaUES 

BY THOMAS WOOD STEVENS 

& KENNETH SAWYER 

GOODMAN 

THE DAIMIOS HEAD 
MONTEZUMA 
QUETZAL'S BOWL 




THE STAGE GUILD 
CHICAGO 



7 5^^^:^ 3 



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Copyright, 1912, by Kenneth Sawyer Goodman 

and Thomas Wood Stevens. 

All rights reserved. 



Notice. Application for permission to per- 
form these plays should be made to The Stage 
Guild, 1527 Railway Exchange Building, Chi- 
cago ; no performance of them may take place 
without consent of the owners of the acting 
rights. 



Q01.D 29728 



^ 



\ 



The Daimio's Head 



CHARACTERS 
Buchi, A Badger-Man, a good goblin. 
ShimfcTzt' } Gentlemen tea-drinkers. 

?Isu } Dancing Girls. 
Funakoshi, a young Samurai. 
O Toyo San, a Princess. 

Q- 1 . r Counsellors of the Daimio of Sendai. 

Matsudaira Mutsa No Kami, Daimio of Sendai. 

An Attendant. 

A Fox Woman, a wicked goblin. 

Hokusai, an Artist. 

His pupil. 

A Magistrate. 

ZIYfIL } At '^- T«-P'« of ^'toji. ' 

The Abbot of the Temple. 

The stage is set with a great screen representing the sacred 
mountain ; paper screens are shifted to represent the various 
places in which the action occurs. Before the opening of the 
play, a line of screens extends across the front of the stage. 
When the audience is seated, a gong is struck and the "Director 
of the Theater" parts the center screens, and stepping forward 
addresses the audience. He is dressed in the costume which 
he will wear as Buchi in the play and carries the false head 
representing a badger-goblin under his arm. 

The Director — Most honorable people, I salute you ! 
I have made a play. 
It is a play of Old Japan. 
It is a play of filial piety and just revenge. 
It will instruct the young in the courtesy due to an 
honorable enemy, 

3 



And the old will renew from it their sympathy for the 

loves of youth. 
Give me your honorable attention. 
I celebrate the sacred Pilgrimage of a young and 

dutiful princess. 
I rehearse for you how she meets and binds to her 

service a young Samurai, 
How together they take the life of a powerful prince, 

her father's foe, 
How they bear his head with humility and reverence 

to the grave of her father, 
And how they are guarded on their journey by a 

Badger-man, a good goblin — 
An unseen spirit in the service of her father's honor- 
able ghost. 
The lady is O Toyo San, daughter of the Daimio 

Sugihara of Kitoji. 
The young man is Funakoshi. 
The Daimio, whom they kill, is Matsudaira Mutsa 

No Kami, Prince of Sendai. 
The Goblin, the Badger-man, is one Buchi. 
When the screens part, you will honorably imagine a 

tea garden in the Spring. 
You will imagine the floating cherry petals. 
You will see Funakoshi, loitering with dancing girls. 
Presently will come O Toyo San, led by the invisible 

Buchi. 
Funakoshi will befriend her. 
At first she will look upon him with contempt. 
But hold ! I must not tell you everything. 
With your honorable permission, the play shall begin. 
i^He claps his hands. The porters take away the screens 

and he withdraws with them?) 



SCENE I 

The scene is a lea garden. Kobayashi and Shimidzu are 
seated together at the extreme left. Funakoshi is reclining on 
his elbow at the extreme right. Uta sits beside him with a 
stringed musical instrument in her hands. Yasu kneels up- 
right beside him. The other tea house girls, dancers, etc. 
kneel or stand behind Funakoshi and are giving their entire 
attention to him to the complete exclusion of the other guests. 

Kobayashi — This is shameful service. {Claps his 

hands.) 
Hi, Hi, Bring us some tea at least. 

Shimidzu — They flutter about like little foolish 
butterflies. 

Kobayashi — Tush, don't you see the flower that 

draws them ? 
I^ook over there. {Points to Funakoshi.) 

Shimidzu — He has a noble look. 
Is he a young prince ? 

Kobayashi — Poof. He's a Ronin, a swash-buckler, a 
bravo out of service. {Claps his hands.) 

Hi, hi, Bring us some wine and cakes. {They are 
served at last and subside?) 

Yasu — {To Funakoshi?) 

The dance pleasures you no longer ? 

Shall I sit down beside you, Master? 

Funakoshi— Sit down beside me, little flower. {Yasu 
sits down?) 

Yasu — You are sad. 

I would blow your sadness away with the breath of 

my fan! 
What shall I do to blow your sadness away ? 

Funakoshi — Dance for me the Dance of the I^ast 
Snows of Spring. 

Uta — We have danced it twice and you have not even 
smiled. 

5 



FuNAKOSHi — Sing for me the Song of the First Snows 
of Autumn. 

Yasu — It is a sad song. I will not sing it. 

Uta — I think he is in love! 

Ali. thk Girls {clapping their hands) — Yes, yes ; he 
is certainly in love. 

FuNAKOSHi— Yes, I am in love. 

Yasu — With whom are you in love ? 

(O Toyo enters. No one notices her.) 

Uta — She must be very cruel! 

Funakoshi — I love you all. I fear I love you too 

well; 
I love your wine; 
I love your dances; 
I love your soft arms about my neck. 

Yasu — If you love us, you should not be sad. 

Funakoshi {catching sight of O Toyo) — Who is that ? 
Who is that standing by the gateway? 

All the Girls —Oh! Oh! Oh! See! See! 
( They run to O Toyo and crowd around her. ) 

Toyo (timidly) — I have trodden the road for a day, 
Nay, for two days, and have tasted food but once. 

1 pray you give me food. 

Yasu {approaching O Toyo) — Your clothes are soiled 
with walking, but they were once very fine. 

They are the clothes of a lady, the daughter of a lord 
or a prince. 

Uta — I think she must have stolen them. 

O Toyo — I go upon a holy pilgrimage. I pray you 
feed me. 

Uta — Listen to her order us about! 
She is a dancing girl run away from her master. 
We will get into trouble if we take her in. 

6 



O ToYO— I will sit down. Bring me some rice and 

tea. 
Yasu— My fine lady, you shall go into the kitchen 

and eat with scullery maids, 
And when you have eaten you shall dance. 

FuNAKOSHi — Be quiet! 

{To O r^j^)— Honorable lady, I beg you to accept the 

service and protection of an humble gentleman. 
Here are some cakes and wine and rice. 

O ToYO — I thank you. {She seats herself) 

Uta— (r^ Fiinakoshi)—h. moment ago you loved us, 
unfaithful one, and now you take up a draggled 
runaway. 

An Kta, for all we know! 

FuNAKOSHi — Peace! Look at her! 

Can you not see that she is well-born? 

Yasu— Does a well-born lady go running about the 
country without attendants ? 

Beware, my lord Funakoshi, she is a goblin or a Fox- 
Woman, come to bewitch you. 

If I had my way, she should be pitched out again 
into the road. 

Funakoshi— Be quiet! Leave the lady in peace. 

O ToYO {coldly)— \ thank you for your kindness. 

Funakoshi— Your voice is like a chilly little wind 

speaking among the stalks of frozen flowers. 
Have I angered you with my presumption? 

ToYO — I can but thank you . 
Funakoshi — You honor me with your thanks. 
But I am not a common man. 

1 am a Samurai, the cadet of a great house. 
You do not demean yourself in talking with me. 

O To YD— I am weary. I must beg you to let me eat 

in silence. 
{Buchi, who has entered with O Toyo, has remained by 

the gate. He is sicpposed to be invisible. He now 
7 



steals up behijid O Toyo, strikes a grotesque attitude^ 
and speaks over her head.) 

BuCHi — They do not see me. I am a spirit — a goblin. 

No one sees me. 
I am a puff of wind. 

I pass unseen, unheard. I can do all things. 
But I am kind. I shall guard the little Lady. 
Her father was my friend. I shall guard her well. 
Already this young man loves her. 
Her image trembles already in his sight like a young 

moon trembling in a mirror of steel. 
I have led her to him that he may do her service. 
I shall bind him to her service. 
I shall bind him to her as a wise armorer binds armor 

upon the body of his lord. 
Hist! 

FuNAKOSHi — Will you not tell me your name? Even 
your name would seem a chime of bells, 

A chime of gentle, golden, twilight bells, 

Rung from a scarlet shrine. 

{O Toy o shakes her head, looking from him to the da?ici7ig 
girls.) 

At least I may look upon you. 

Even if you will not speak, I may look upon your 
face. 

The pleasure of looking upon your face is like the 
pleasure of looking upon a pool of lotus in the gar- 
den of the Tycoon. 

ToYO {jnore ge7itly) — Sir, I have been discourteous; 

1 humbly beg that you forgive me. 

FuNAKOSHi — Again she has spoken and it is like the 
tinkling of silver rain in a basin of water-lilies. 

O ToYO — Your face is kind, your voice is gentle. 
Can it be that your face is only a mask, 
Your voice only a samisen ? 

FuNAKOSHi — I know not what you mean, but speak 
to me again. 

O ToYO — Just now when I came in, these dancing 
girls, these butterflies, 

8 



spoke to you as one speaks to a familiar, 
One who has loitered often with such as they. 

FuNAKOSHi — Lady, you shame me. 

ToYO — Is there no service for your sword, 
No splendid vengeance which you brood upon, 
Waiting your time ? 

FuNAKOSHi — Listen ! 

That you may know me not so base as I appear. 
My hand is held from a bloody deed of the most hon- 
orable nature. 
Only by most unfortunate circumstances . 

1 pray you to believe me an honorable gentleman. 
Because — forgive me — I love you. 

ToYO — Honorable Sir, 

1 appreciate your courtesy. 

You have not inquired into my present circumstances. 
Alas, they must seem to you strange, if not un- 

maidenly. 
I go upon a most imperative mission ; 
I go upon a pilgrimage of filial piety. 
I must not think of love. 

FuNAKOSHi — Lady, I am the dust of the road under 

your little sandals. 
Yet, I am presumptuous. 
I pray you let me go with you. 

ToYO — I go to seek the life of my father's slayer. 
The spirit of my father cannot rest. 

1 am the last of his house. 

There is no hand but mine to avenge him. 
No hand but this pale little hand. 
Which can hardly lift a dirk, 
Yet, he shall be avenged. 
And I shall carry the head of Matsudaira, 
Of Matsudaira Mutsa No Kami, Daimio of Sendai, to 
the Temple of Kitoji. 

FuNAKOSHi — But this Daimio of Sendai, he is a great 
lord. 

9 



O ToYO— I shall carry it, all the way in mine own 

hands, 
And I shall place it with fitting ceremony upon the 

grave of my honored father, 
And his spirit shall be at peace. 

FuNAKOSHi — He will be guarded close. 

ToYO — He will not fear a woman — 

FuNAKOSHi— Now the high gods and the spirits of my 
ancestors be praised 

1 have found worthy service. 

I may go with you, Little Lady of Heaven ? 
Say that I may go with you. 

O ToYO — You may go with me. {They join hands) 

BuCHi — You see she has taken his hand, 

O Toyo San has taken the hand of Funakoshi, 

And his heart trembles at the touch of her little hand. 

It is shaken as the leaves of a fortunate tree are shaken 

by the wings of the happy birds. 
While he walks beside her, the land will swim with 

sunshine. 
But as yet she, the little lady, thinks only of her pil- 
grimage. 
The road is long which leads to the castle of the 

Daimio of Sendai 
A march of days and days, 
But they are already upon the road. 
Poof ! Behold ! I have blown the days away, 
And O Toyo San and Funakoshi are come already to the 

castle of my master's foe. 
When the screens are taken away, you will see a room 

in the castle ; 
You will see the Daimio of Sendai ; 
You will see him with his counsellors. 
You will hear wise words and pious regret for an evil 

act. 
Presently will come O Toyo San demanding justice. 
But I must not tell all the story. Attend — 
{He claps his hayids and the porters withdraw the 

screens) 

10 



SCENE II 

When the screens part, Matsudaira, Asano and Oishi are 
seated in the center of the stage. The Diamio faces the audi- 
ence and the counsellors are on either side of him facing each 
other. 

AsANO — My lord, we are men of little wit. 
In what shall we offer counsel to Matsudaira Mutsa 
No Kami, Daimio of Sendai. 

The Daimio — Age comes upon me in stealth. 
He gnaws my heart like a rat. 
And I may not strike him down. 

Oishi — Age is a well of wisdom. 

Your people shall drink wisdom at the well of your 

old age. 
ThK Daimio — It may be true, Oishi, 
But of late I have come to feel that my ancestors are 

displeased with me. 

Asano — How may that be ? 

My lord has been most scrupulous to do them all 
fitting honor. 

The Daimio— That is true; I have built them no less 
than five temples and forty- two shrines. 

I have let no enemy of my house escape. 

Yet, my sleep is crowded with the most terrible 
dreams. 

Oishi — It may be that my lord is bewitched by some 
goblin. 

The Daimio— It may be as you speak it, Oishi, 
For I have, indeed, been dutiful to my ancestors. 
I have lived a life upright beyond that of most men. 
The gods have small cause for anger against me. 
Yet, I am minded of one act in which I was not with- 
out blame. 
Asano— My lord, we cannot imagine it. 

The Daimio— Thirty enemies of my house have I 
put to death, 

11 



And in no case, save one, have I failed in any point 

of consideration due their rank. 
In this one case, I did a grevious and discourteous 

thing. 

OiSHi — My lord, we cannot imagine it. 

The Diamio— Yet it is true. 

And the anger it hath made must be very terrible, for 
now that I have grown old, it shakes my sleep 
from me. 

Listen to my speaking. 

I did have just cause to require of one Sugihara of Kitoji 

That he render up his life. 

He was brought before me and did honorably ac- 
knowledge my right to his head. 

He was a brave man. I should have done him honor. 

I should have hired a shrine and provided mattings 
of fine straw, 

But I was drunken with the fighting, 

I was bewitched by discourteous demons, 

I forced the dirk into his noble hand. 

He slew himself by the roadside 

And his august head fell and was soiled by the dust 
of the road. 

Wherefore, I am harried in my age and am a shaken 
old man. 

{Enter an attendant from the right?) 

Attendant — Most exalted and honorable Daimio. 

The Daimio— Speak. 

Attendant — A Lady of the military class begs speech 
with my lord, that she may obtain justice. 

The Daimio — Let the Lady enter. 

{The attendant withdraws. Enter O Toyo, Funakoshi 
and Buchi. Oishi and Osano at a sigyi from the 
Daimio withdraw to the sides of the stage. Funakoshi 
and O Toyo take exactly the positions formerly occu- 
pied by the counsellors . Buchi remains by the entrance?) 

O Toyo — Most exalted and honorable Daimio of Sen- 
dai, 

12 



Men speak in far countries of your justice and wisdom. 
I have come far to obtain justice. 

The Daimio — Honorable Lady, my ears are open. 
Do you desire the death of an enemy ? 

O ToYO — I desire the death of an enemy. 

The Daimio — It is well. 

O ToYO — I desire that you hear me, 
And that you bear witness to the justice of my require- 
ment. 

The Daimio — It is well. I will judge your plea 
And if your requirement be of a just and honorable 

nature 
You shall seek vengeance under my protection. Speak. 

ToYO — I present to your august Lordship my most 
humble and dutiful thanks. 

1 am the daughter of a once powerful prince. 
I am the last of a ruined house. 

No man of my family lives to bear sword or spear. 
My honorable father was put to death and his lands 

and houses and goods were confiscated. 
Hear me, my lord. 
I do acknowledge the justice which required the life of 

my father. 
But the spirit of my father will not sleep- 
He walks abroad and cries out to me from the shadows 

of my dreams 
For when he had made ready to die, 
My father was denied the rights and ceremonials pro- 
vided by the sacred law, 
And being dead, his honorable body received not the 
consideration due his noble rank. 

The Daimio — This is a terrible thing. 

I pray you make known to me the circumstances. 

O ToYO — My father's enemy, a powerful Daimio, 
With archers and bowmen and spear bearers, did come 

upon my father's people and slay them. 
Then was my father brought before the Daimio and 

did honorably prepare to die, 
13 



Asking that a shrine be prepared, 

And that mattings of fine straw be provided. 

But the Daimio was bitter with hatred. 

He was bewitched by the demons of anger and dis- 
courtesy. 

He would not listen. 

My father gave up his life like a common man in a 
ditch, 

And his head was soiled by the dust of the road. 

Therefore, the spirit of my father cannot rest, 

And the hatred will not die, 

And the gods must be appeased with the blood of 
Matsudaira Mutsa No Kami, Daimio of Sendai. 

His head must lie as a peace offering upon my father's 
grave. 

Most honorable prince, I have spoken. 

Thk Daimio — Aye, aye. {Nods.) 

Age comes upon me. 

I have lived at courts. I have seen and heard too 

much . 
I am weary with the aching of old wounds. 
Moreover, my ancestors are displeased with me. 
Honorable I^ady, I do acknowledge the justice of your 

purpose. 

FuNAKOSHi — And now, my lord, I do most humbly 
beseech your lordship to perform hara kiri. 

I, myself, shall have the honor to act as your second. 

I shall with all humility and reverence receive your 
head. 

And the honorable lady will bear it with her own 
hands to the Temple of Kitoji. 

Thk Daimio — Your desire is just and courteous; 

It pleases me to accede to your desire. {To the two 

counsellors ?) 
Oishi— Asano — You have heard. 
When the ceremony is done, the honorable lady may 

depart in peace. 

Thk C0UNSK1.1.ORS — We have heard 

14 



ThK Daimio— Most Honorable Lady, I commend 
your filial piety and evoke the protection of the 
gods for your pilgrimage. 

O ToYO — I most humbly thank your august lordship 
for your honorable condescension. 

{Asano and Oishi return with porters bearing a shrine 
a7id matting and everything needful for the ceremony. 
The Daimio performs hara-kiri, and his retainers 
then bear his body into the rear apartment. Fun- 
akoshi draws his sword and follows them. Buchi 
steps to the doorway and speaks?) 

Buchi— They treat his honorable body with con- 
sideration. 

Ha, ha, his honorable head falls upon the square of 
oiled paper. 

Funakoshi has struck a clean blow. 

Now Funakoshi has put the head in a box. Hist, he 
is coming out. 

{Eiiter Funakoshi followed by Asano and Oishi. Fun- 
akoshi bears a box which he presents to O Toyo. They 
go out, Oishi and Asano hieel beside the door of the 
rear cipartment. Buchi rtms to the front of the stage 
and the porters draw the screens?) 

You have seen the first task accomplished. 

My master's enemy is dead, but it is far to the Temple 
of Kitoji. 

The retainers of the Daimio of Sendai have allowed 
them to depart in peace. 

But they have exacted a receipt for the head of their 
master, 

And the head of the Daimio of Sendai must be re- 
turned with honor to his own people. 

It must be returned before the new moon. 

It must be returned safe that fitting rites may put his 
spirit at rest. 

That the anger may die and the house be at peace. 

Therefore, the pilgrimage must be made in haste. 

The way is beset with demons and Fox-women and 
strange foes. 

Now, O Toyo San and Funakoshi are upon the road. 

15 



They have trodden the road with little rest. 

But now we have come to a pavilion in a barren place; 

O Toyo San is weary and must sleep. 

Behold ! 

{^He claps his hands a7id the porters withdraw the screejis.) 

SCENE III 

The place, as Buchi has explained, is a barren spot by the 
roadside, in the night. A screen, called a pavilion, is on the 
stage. 

{Enter O Toyo, carrying the head of the Daimio in a box, 
and Fimakoshi.) 

Toyo — Funakoshi, my friend, I can go no further. 
Let us honorably rest ourselves. 

Funakoshi — Little pearl of Delight, it shall be so. 

But here is a barren moor. 

We are far from any house. 

You shall sleep and I shall guard you well. 

But I cannot let you sleep in the dust of the roadway. 

1 will carry you further. 

O Toyo {looking about her) — Here is a pavilion. 

Let me set down my holy burden, and do you light 
me lights, 

That I may pray to my ancestors. 

Then I will sleep with my head on the box which 
holds the head of the Daimio, 

And when I am rested again, we may go our way to 
the Temple. 

{He sets up the screen, and lights small lamps on the box, 
before which she kneels and prays?) 

Oh, spirits of my father and my mother, 

And of all my thirty thousand ancestors, 

Do you guard me well, 

And guard well this box into which I have put the 
Daimio's head. 

And I will bring it faithfully to the Temple. 

But now I am weary and would sleep. Sayonara. 

{She curls up around the box aiid goes to sleep. Fun- 
akoshi puts out the lights ajid moves the screen to sur- 
round her.) 

16 



FuNAKOSHi — The night is black, and this moor is as 

bare as death. 
I would guard her whom I love, 
But I pray me no goblins nor unkind ghosts may 

come by us tonight 
{The Fox Woman appears, following their tracks.) 
And I pray all my fathers that no thief shall come, 

nor any evil men, 
Nor any Cat or Fox People to do us harm, 
For this is a holy pilgrimage that we make ; 
It were ill if anyone should hinder us, since our time 

is so brief . 

Thk Fox Woman {Behind the pavilion from Fun- 

akoshi.) 
I see that here is a place where I may work mischief, 
For I can lure away the young Samurai, 
Where the Fox People can torment him. 
Can make them lose the head of the Daimio, whereat 

there will be great anger and hatred in the land. 
Such as our people love more than everything, 
And afterward I can come back and eat up the little 

lady- 
But first I shall put on her likeness, to lure away the 

Samurai. {She goes behind the screen?) 

FuNAKOSHi — Did you speak, little lady of the flower- 
like hands ? 

Thb Fox Woman {putting oiit her head) — I pray thee be 
silent, mighty guardian. 

FuNAKOSHi — She is wearied beyond the gates of rest. 
My heart misgives me that I have let her come so far 

without pause or sleep. 
( The Fox Woma7i comes ont, disguised as O Toyo.) 

Thk Fox Woman — Funakoshi, I am wearied of this 

journey, yet I cannot sleep. 
I w^ould have you take me away. 

Funakoshi — Whither, little flower of twilight ? 

The Fox Woman — I would go with you to some 
lonely teahouse, 

17 



That we may rest. 

I would have food, and see dancing, 

And forget this task of carrying the old Daimio's head. 

FuNAKOSHi — But what of your father's ghost, and of 

your pious revenge ? 
If you do not carry the head to the Temple, 
The feud will go on, and men will be killed, 
And the land will shake with hatred. 

The Fox Woman — It is plain that you do not love me. 

FuNAKOSHi — I swear it by the trooping souls of my 

forefathers, 
By my two swords. 

The Fox Woman — Then come with me. 
We will throw this accursed box into a well. 
That we may be free to take our way among the gar- 
dens and the flowers- 

Funakoshi — Little lady, this a strange saying, 
Yet your voice makes me as water that falls from 
mountain, trembling. 

{Buchi appears speaking from the air behiiid the pavilion. 
The Fox Woman has led Funakoshi away to the side 
of the stage.) 

Buchi — Beware, Funakoshi, beware. 

This is a goblin, a Fox Woman who lures you. 

This is not the little lady. 

If you follow the Fox Woman, your lady will perish. 

The Fox Woman — Why do you start so, Funakoshi? 

Funakoshi — I heard a voice that spoke to me. 

Tne Fox Woman — There is no one here to speak to 
us. Let us go on. I am afraid. 

Buchi — It is well she is afraid. 

Take your sword, Funakoshi, and strike off her head. 

You will find when you have done that, that she is a 

red fox, 
And not your lady at all. 

18 



The Fox Woman — Come away, Funakoshi. 
You hear nothing but the wind on the moor. 

Funakoshi — I hear the voice of a ghost who is faith- 
ful to my little lady. 

If you are a Fox Woman, 

I command you, before I slay you with my sword, to 
declare it to me. 

I command you by the River of the Dead. 

{^He seizes her ha7id, and looks in her face. She screams 
and struggles free?) 

Your hand is a paw with red fur upon it, 

I will slay you. 

(^As he draws his sword, she runs back to the pavilion. 
He follows her, sword uplifted. She runs behind the 
pavilion and out on the other side, her likeness to O 
Toyo gone, and her face again cha?iged to the face of 
a fox. Funakoshi loses her in her flight, and returns 
to the pavilion, which he takes away from its place. 
O Toyo is disclosed sleeping as before?) 

O Toyo {Wakening) 

Funakoshi, my friend, I have slept and am rested. 

But I have dreamed of a red Fox Woman. 

Did you slay her ? 

Funakoshi — She has run away into the night. 
Will you sleep longer, little flower ? 

Toyo — I will not sleep longer. 
We must hasten to the Temple. 

Let us go on, for the road is long before us. 

Funakoshi — The road is long to the gateway of the 
second Temple, where love dwells 

1 am eager for the end of our pilgrimage. 
Let us set forward. {They go out?) 

BuCHi — You see, honorable people, how Love may 
triumph over deceit and witchcraft. 

You see how I, Buchi, have rescued the brave Samu- 
rai and the little lady. 

I have rescued them from hideous danger, 

From the Fox Women that bewitch the heart and de- 
vour the body, 

19 



And again they are upon the road. 

But there are hills to mount, and valleys to cross and 
villages to pass, 

And men of diverse sorts to be encountered. 

Poof, I have blown the hours away, 

And behold! They are come to a fair spot where they 
may rest themselves. 

When the screens part, you will see the sacred moun- 
tain, 

And you will honorably imagine fair shade trees and 
cooling wind. 

Presently will come an old man, a maker of pictures, 

And to him O Toyo San will unwisely dissemble as to 
the nature of her burden. 

Whereupon will follow a droll predicament drawing 
to a serious issue. 

But I must not tell all the story. Attend. 

(^He claps his hands and the porters set the scree?is.) 

SCENE IV 

A roadside shrine, looking toward Fuji. 

{Enter Funakoshi and O Toyo, with the box.) 

FuNAKOSHi — Honorable lady, we must pause for some 
refreshment. 

O Toyo — I am hungry, but the time of our pilgrimage 
is so brief. I must not stop. 

Funakoshi — You must rest for a moment, and eat 
these cakes; then we will go on to the Temple. 

O Toyo — I am filled with fear, lest the Daimio's peo- 
ple come for the head before I have laid it upon 
my father's tomb. The hour approaches when they 
may claim it again, and I must render it up. 

Funakoshi — That is true. But I will not have this 
pilgrimage in vain. You shall first place it on your 
father's grave. I have sworn it by my two swords. 

O Toyo — We have still three valleys to cross, and 
nine villages to pass. If no man stops us, we may 
arrive safely. 

20 



{Enter Hokusai and his pupil. They seem displeased 
to find O Toyo and Funakoshi.) 

FuNAKOSHi — Light of the morning, I have this to 
say. Let us tell no one of our destination. Let us 
dissemble this head, and speak no longer the truth 
about it until we are come to the Temple. Thus we 
shall escape from those who would delay us. 

O Toyo — I will do as you think well, Funakoshi, but 
I fear me we may deceive awkwardly, and may be 
the worse delayed. 

Funakoshi — Leave to me the dissembling. I am a 
master of lies. 

O ToYO — It shall be so, mighty guardian, 

HoKusAi — Most humbly I beseech you, lady with the 
box and my lord with the great swords. I am a 
poor man. I am an artist. I was drawing for a 
print of the sacred mountain, and you are sitting 
where I must sit. I pray you move. 

Funakoshi {assuming an aspect of great pride) — It 
were more fitting, old man, for you to wait till the 
honorable lady has eaten and rested. 

HoKusAi — What you say is true, but I fear me the 
mists may come up and conceal the mountain. I am 
unhappily compelled to pray your lordship august- 
ly to forgive my entreaty. 

Funakoshi — The high born and honorable lady is not 
accustomed to such demands. 

HoKusAi — My lord, anger conies upon me, with the 
fear that the mists may cloak the mountain. I am 
not myself accustomed to such contempt. 

Funakoshi — Little old man, it is nothing but con- 
tempt that one of your class may expect from us. 

HoKUSAi — I am not so sure of this. I do not know 
you, nor the lady, if you be honorable people. You 
are strangers, and it is not usual for great ladies to 
sit eating by the wayside. 

21 . 



FuNAKOSHi — Old man, I may not endure this pre- 
sumption 

O ToYO (interrupting) — I pray you, Funakoshi, dis- 
semble. Do not quarrel with him. 

HoKUSAi — Since you are strangers, I have some right 
to question you. Who are you, and what have you 
in that box ? 

O ToYO — Now let me hear you, if you can honorably 
dissemble. 

Funakoshi — I admit your right, old man. It is not 
usual in these villages perhaps, that honorable 
ladies go w4th only one attendant. But in our own 
place, in Kitoji, it is an every-day matter. 

HoKUSAi — Ah! It is common in Kitoji. 

Funakoshi — It is the universal practice — in Kitoji. 

HoKUSAi — That is very strange. I lived in Kitoji for 
nine and twenty years and I never once observed it, 

Funakoshi — Honorable sir, you are very olid. This 
must have been many years ago. The cherry trees 
in Kitoji do not now remember your face. Customs 
change. 

Hokusai — It may be so, in Kitoji. But you do not 
answer me when I question you. What has the lady 
in that box ? 

Funakoshi — The honorable lady has in that box — 
though I do not admit that it is necessary that I an- 
swer you at all — she has in that box a — a — teapot. 

Hokusai — (Claps his hands and calls his pupil to him, 
zvhispers an errand and sends the pupil away.) 

O ToYO (to Funakoshi) — Now you have angered him. 
It is not a fortunate thing honorably to have said 
we carried — a teapot. 

Funakoshi — The honorable lady carries a teapot to 
her grandparents for a gift that their souls may hold 
her in loving memory when they are dead. 
22 



HoKUSAi — And what are the names of her grandpar- 
ents? 

FuNAKOSHi — It is not for you insolently to inquire; 
it is not seemly; for her grandparents are both of 
them old and feeble — older even than yourself. 

HoKusAi — I will cease from questioning you for a 
moment. I am not so old, and I have a great deal 
still to learn about my art, so I pray that I may for 
many years be spared. For I have set myself to 
make six and thirty prints of the sacred mountain. 

{He looks off stage impatiently.) 

And I would not have my hand nor my eyes fail me. 

O ToYO — Let us set forward, Funakoshi. 

HoKUSAi — Wait. I have still much to tell you. I 
have to tell you of my art, and all that I know about 
it; and of many other matters. 

Funakoshi — We cannot wait. 

HoKUSAi — The venerable grandparents will live a lit- 
tle longer. Let me speak. 

Funakoshi — We cannot pause to listen. 
(Enter the pupil with a magistrate, follozved by 
guards.) 

The Pupil — Here are the two, august magistrate, and 
my master believes they are the ones who are guilty. 
Though I think rather that the man only is guilty, 
and that the lady is held in distress by the man, who 
is plainly a fellow of little consequence. 

The Magistrate — These are the two, old Hokusai? 

HoKusAi — These are the two. 

The Magistrate — Of what do you accuse them? 

HoKusAi — I accuse them, my lord, because they have 
as good as admitted the possession of it, and be- 
cause they are vagrant people and strangers, and be- 
cause they are even now sitting on the very spot 
23 



where I must sit to make my picture of the sacred 
mountain. I accuse them of stealing my blue tea- 
pot. 

FuNAKOSHi — This is most outrageous and insult- 
ing 

The Magistrate — The man defends himself unwise- 

ly- 

O ToYO — Have a care, Funakoshi. 

The Magistrate — Did you not admit that you have 
in that box a blue teapot? 

Funakoshi — Not a blue teapot, my lord. The thing 
we have in this box is white and red — not blue. 

The Magistrate — This man is an artist. He should 
surely know if the pot is blue. 

Funakoshi — But my lord, what we have here 



The Magistrate — Be silent. I have decided the 
point. Hokusai, you can prove that you had a 
teapot stolen ? 

Hokusai — Very easily. My apprentice knows it well. 

The Magistrate (to the apprentice) — You testify to 
the truth of what your master says? For if I am 

■ to punish this man and this lady, it m.ust be with 
full justice. 

The Pupil (hesitatingly) — Surely my master's tea- 
pot has vanished, my lord. 

The Magistrate — The case is a clear one, but I shall 
not myself pronounce sentence. The Daimio of this 
province will be in our village twenty days or so 
from today, and it would please him better if these 
matters be left to him. Therefore, I will lock up 
these two until he comes, and the case may then 
be tried fully. Take them away and lock them up. 

Funakoshi — My lord, this is not to be endured. 
There is nothing against the honorable little lady. 
You cannot lock her up for nothing. 
24 



The Magistrate — Oh, yes. I can lock her up till the 
Dahnio comes ; then if she has done nothing wrong, 
he will give her full justice. 

FuNAKOSHi — But she is on a holy pilgrimage. 

HoKusAi — A holy pilgrimage — taking my teapot to 
her grandfather. 

The Magistrate — I have heard enough of this tea- 
pot. Lock them up. 

O To YD — Tell them the truth, Funakoshi. 

The Magistrate — Do not let them speak together. 
(The guards part them.) 

Funakoshi — Hear me, most excellent and august 
highness. We have not told the truth. This lady 
has in the box not a teapot, but the head of the ven- 
erable Daimio of Sendai, and she is bearing it to 
the Temple at Kitoji that it may lie on her honor- 
able father's grave. Her time is brief and the 
Daimio's people will hold it a heavy shame if the 
head be not brought back, for we have given them 
a receipt for the head, and have bound ourselves to 
return it. 

The Magistrate — This is quite another matter. But 
how are we to know which is truth? 

Funakoshi — We will open the box, and you shall 
see the head. And then we must go on at once, 
for we have tarried here too long. 

The Magistrate — Open the box. 

O ToYO — This is not possible, most exalted one. It 
were most discourteous to the Daimio to bring out 
his head by the wayside, to show it to curious vil- 
lagers. I will not open the box. 

The Magistrate — In that case, the box contains a 
blue teapot, and I must hold both till the Daimio 
comes. 

25 



O ToYO — Most exalted one, I throw myself at your 
feet. I take upon me the dust of the roadway. I 
prostrate my soul before you. This is a most ruin- 
ous sentence, and my ancestors will be terrible in 
their anger against me. Let me go on to the Tem- 
ple. I will pay this man the value of ten tea- 
pots. I will pay your exalted highness the value of 
a hundred. Only let me go on to the Temple. 

The Magistrate — This is an affront to me — this of- 
fer of money. I can have no pity upon you. 

FuNAKOSHi — Arise, O Toyo San, and go on. I will 

clear you the way with my sword. 
{The magistrate makes a gesture, and Fimakoshi is 

caught from behind by the guards.) 

The Magistrate — Take this fellow away, and shut 
him in the cavern, where he may be silent. 

O Toyo — This comes of our dissembling. 

FuNAKOSHi — I alone am to blame, honorable lady. 

O Toyo — I forget the blame, Funakoshi, my friend, 
Sayonara. 

FuNAKOSHi — Sayonara. 

O ToYO — Now am I indeed forsaken. 

The Pupil — Oh, exalted judge, hear me now, for I 
have come to confess my guilt. It was I who broke 
the master's teapot, and hid the pieces in a well. 

HoKusAi — Ah, woe is me — it is broken? 

The Magistrate — Why do you tell me this now ? It 
confuses my judgment of this case. 

The Pupil — I could not bear it that the honorable 
lady be unhappy. 

The Magistrate — Let him go. (Funakoshi is re- 
leased.) This is quite another matter. Honorable 
Lady, go on with the head of your father's enemy to 
the Temple, for surely this is a pious and a holy 



mission. Hokusai, I do not find cause for com- 
plaint here between you and these august person- 
ages, but I advise that you beat this apprentice 
soundly. 

Hokusai— It shall be done, exalted sir— soundly. 

The Magistrate— Honorable Lady and my lord 
Funakoshi, I counsel haste. Sayonara. 

O ToYO AND Funakoshi — Sayonara. (They go out.) 

BucHi— Ha ! Ha ! You see ! Our story moves ! 

The way has been a long way. 

The snares and the mishaps have been many. 

But to Funakoshi the hard road has seemed a meadow 

of sweet grass, 
To the feet of Funakoshi it has been as a soft carpet 

of Spring flowers. 
He could journey thus to the place where the light 

winds kiss the green edges of the world. 
Yet, in honor, he may not delay the hours 
He may not stay their feet vv^ith lingering words of 

love 
And the hours are swift. 

They are swifter than the little feet of O Toyo San, 
And already the day approaches when she must hon- 
orably fulfill her promise, 
When she must render back the head of the Prince of 

Sendai to his own people. 
These have been hours of haste and struggle and fear. 
Poof ! I blow them away. They are over. 
When the screens part you will behold the sacred 

court of the Temple at Kitoji 
But now, alas, the hours have run out, 
The retainers of the Daimio of Sendai are already in 

the courtyard. 
They demand the head of their master. 
Hold, I must not tell all my story. 
For the last time, I crave your honorable attention. 



27 



SCENE V. 

A courtyard of the Temple, at Kitoji. A great image of 
of Buddha ; priests with incense, etc. 

First Priest — It is an evil thing for our Temple 
That the soul of Sugihara the Daimio cannot rest in it. 

Second Priest — There is a knocking at the Temple 

gate. 
Do you go and see who comes. 
{The Second Priest goes out, and returns zvith Asano 

and Oishi, imth some of their retainers.) 

Asano — Is this the Temple of Kitoji? 

(The priests how.) 

OiSHi — We are honorably come for the head of our 
master, Matsudaira Mutsa No Kami, Prince of 
Sendai. 

First Priest — We regret it most bitterly 
We have not in our keeping the head of the Prince of 
Sendai. 

OiSHi — This is incredible, that you have not the head. 
Our venerable master performed hara kiri several days 

ago. 
His head was courteously taken by O Toyo San, 

daughter of the Daimio Sugihara. 
It was to be brought to this Temple. 
It was to be this day returned to us. 
We have here the receipt for the head. 
{He brings out a paper, which the priests examine.) 

First Priest — It may be that the princess is still on 

her way hither, 
And that she will come soon. 
Will you honorably rest yourselves? 

Asano — We will wait. 

{They seat themselves; there is a long pause.) 



It may be that we have done evil in not guarding the 

Httle lady on her journey. 
It is a dark thought that she may have lost the head. 

OiSHi — If she does not come, what shall we do then? 

AsANO — She will come. 

Do you remember how she faced our master? 

She will come. 

OiSHi — Still, she is late. 

Her revenge will be in vain. 

We cannot allow her to keep the head longer. 

AsANO — We have her bond. We may take the head at 

once. 
(Enter O Toyo and Funakoshi.) 

Little Lady, we regret that your pilgrimage is in vain. 
You have too late arrived at the Temple. 
We demand that you give us at once 
The head of our master, Matsudaira Mutsa No Kami. 

OiSHi — We are filled with sorrow for your father's 

restless soul, 
Little Lady, but we cannot wait longer. 

Toyo — My lords, I have traveled far, and am 
wearied out. 

1 have kept this head by me most reverently. 
I ask of you only a little time. 

OiSHi — It is impossible, little Lady. 

O Toyo — Only a moment, because I have come so far, 

And have faced such strange matters. 

A moment, that my father's spirit may be at peace. 

OiSHi — It is impossible. 
(She turns to Asano.) 

O Toyo — My lord, if there is anything I might offer; 
If there is anything I might give 

OiSHi — Only the head of my venerable master, in- 
stantly. 

29 



O ToYO — I only ask that it may lie for a moment on 

his tomb, 
That I may call my father's spirit to see it, 
And then the hatred will be appeased. 

OiSHi — The one hatred might slacken, 

But another would be enkindled. Give me the head. 

FuNAKOSHi — {Seising the tzvo counsellors from de- 
hind. ) 

Go quickly, little lady. Pray your prayer. 

These shall not stay you. 

{She runs out zvith the box. The tzuo men struggle 
zvith Funakoshi, and at last break azvay from him; 
they draw szvords and attack him, zvith two of their 
retainers, and he is forced back against the Buddha. 
The First Priest comes in.) 

First Priest — Cease, and be silent. 

You shall now await the coming of the most ancient 

Abbot of this Temple. 
Since you have defiled this courtyard with swords. 

OiSHi — Fall back. He cannot escape us. 

AsANO — His life is ours. Let him rest. 

{Enter O Toyo, a rapt expression on her face. She 
sees the swords, and Funakoshi in a posture of de- 
fence. She runs over to him.) 

O Toyo — Ah, Funakoshi, my lord, my light! 

Funakoshi — Rest here, flower of the dawn. 
It is but a little while we shall be troubled. 

Toyo — Do they seek vengeance upon you? 

Funakoshi — They will do what they will. 
But our holy pilgrimage is done, little lady. 

1 have performed my service to you, 
And I do not complain. 

ToYO — You have been my guide, my guardian. 
My tower of bright steel, 

The armor of my spirit. 

1 will not have it that they shall take your life. 

Funakoshi — Let it be as it is, O Toyo San. 

30 



I have walked beside you. 

I have heard your voice when it was Hke the bells in 

the temples of the thousandth paradise. 
I have loved you. 

It was for this I was destined by my ancestors. 
I love you, O Toyo San. 
I am content. 

Toyo — I cannot give you into the river of death, 
For mine eyes are blinded with tears. 

1 cannot follow you. 

FuNAKOSHi — I shall die honorably and in your serv- 
ice. 
Lay your hand in mine. 
Look forward. 
I shall wait for you by the river. 

O Toyo — You shall not wait long. Oh my strength! 

AsANO — Funakoshi, we demand of you that you now 
perform hara kiri. 

Funakoshi — I am obedient to you, my lord. 

Let a proper mat be spread, and do you act as my 
second, my lord Oishi. 

{They start the preparations as in Scene II. Funa- 
koshi and O Toyo cling to each other.) 

ToYO — My lord Oishi, 

1 pray you, let the sacred dirk be given quickly to me. 
When my lord — 

(She breaks off, sobbing. Oishi offers Funakoshi the 
knife on a tray.) 

(Enter the Abbot of the temple, a very old and rev- 
erend priest, follozved by a procession of other 
priests. ) 

The Abbot — I command you, stay. 

A mighty miracle has been done here in our temple. 

Lo, I tell you of a miracle. 

The spirit of the Daimio Sugihara could not sleep. 

The spirit could not rest. 

His daughter, the honorable lady O Toyo San, has 

brought hither the head of his enemy, the Daimio of 

Sendai. 

31 



She has placed it upon the tomb of her father. 

OiSHi — Revered and venerable one, we are his peo- 
ple. 
We have come for the head of the Daimio of Sendai. 

The Abbot — You have not come in vain. 

The hatred between the houses is blown away forever. 

The head w^as placed upon the tomb. 

The spirit of Sugihara took up the sacred knife and 

struck the head, 
This I have with mine old eyes here witnessed. 
So is the hate blown away, 
And the world and this province are at peace. 

OiSHi — Then is our quarrel at an end? 

The Abbot — Even so. 

I give you back the head of the Daimio of Sendai. 

OiSHi — I give you back the receipt we took from the 
honorable lady, O Toyo San. 

AsANO — We congratulate the honorable lady upon 
her piety and virtue. 

OiSHi — We humbly and considerately take leave of 
you. Sayonara. 

(They turn and go out with their men. The Abbot 
and his priests go out on the other side, leaving 
O Toyo and Funakoshi at the foot of the Buddha. 
Buchi enters , clapping his hands. The screens are 
joined, and Buchi steps forward to speak the epi- 
logue.) 

BucHi — Honorable people, 
The sacred mission is accomplished. 
The spirit of my master is at peace. 
The Hatred is dead. 

My Little Lady has given her hand to the Lord Funa- 
koshi. 
It is well with them. 
(Takes off his mask.) 
You have heard, you have seen — 
Most honorable patrons, my play is done. 
Sayonara ! 

32 



STAGE GUILD MASQUES 
' MONTEZUMA ^ 



THE MASQUE OF MONTEZUMA 

This masque was written for, and first produced by, the Art 
Student's League, at the Art Institute, Chicago, February 20, 
igi2. The original musical setting was written by George A . 
Colburn. The book of words is published for the occasion by 
The Stage Guild, under the editorship of Wallace Rice. The 
setting for the production was designed by Allen E. Philbrick 
and A. N. Rebori, and painted under their direction. 

Dramatis Person^ 

Huitzil, the War God - - - Thomas W. Stevens 

High Priest of Huitzil .... Frederick J. Cowley 

Second Priest of Huitzil Roy Tyrrell 

Cuitlahautzin, Montezuma's brother - Frank J. McNellis 

Guatomotzin, nephew to Montezuma - Roy Hambleton 

Montezuma B. Roslyn Kirkbride 

High Priest of Quetzal Francis Samms 

First Priestess of Quetzal ... - Elaine Hyman 

Second Priestess of Quetzal . - - - Florence Levy 

A Messenger Harry L. Gage 

Montezuma's Envoy Milton Newman 

An Aztec Warrior Charles Mullen 

First Aztec Woman .... Luvena Buchanan 

Second Aztec Woman .... Frances Thorp 

Cortez D. M. Stebbins 

Marina, Interpreter for Cortez - - - Nouart Seron 

Alvarado E. M. Sincere 

Padre Olmedo A. D. Gibbs 

Bernal Diaz CD. Faulkner 

Groups representing Montezuma's court, the priests and priest- 
esses of the Aztec gods, singers, dancers, artificers, Aztec war. 
riors following Cuitlahautzin; Spaniards and Tlascalans follow- 
ing Cortez. 



ARGUMENT OF THE MASQUE 

The masque begins with the prologue spoken by the war god, 
Huitzil, who is angered by the election of Montezuma to the 
kingship. In the first scene, Montezuma is invested with the 
sacred beak-crown of Huitzil ; his warlike brother, Cuitlahaut- 
zin, acknowledges his allegiance ; and news comes of the land- 
ing of the white strangers on the coast. The priest of Quetzal 
declares that the strangers come in accordance with the prophe- 
cy that Quetzal, the sun -god of the Aztecs, would one day return 
to Tenochtitlan. 

In the second scene Montezuma's envoy returns with word 
that the strangers, in spite of the royal command, are on the 
march to Mexico. Montezuma is then persuaded to invite 
them to come, in spite of the warnings of the High Priest of 
Huitzil. 

In the third scene the action shifts to the great causeway, 
where Montezuma meets and welcomes Cortez. The Spaniard, 
through his interpreter, Marina, half-persuades, half compels 
the King to lodge him and his men in the royal palace. 

The fourth scene opens with the capture of a Spanish sentinel, 
and his sacrifice upon the war-god's altar. Cortez fights his 
way to the altar, and his followers tear down the image of 
Huitzil, setting up the Cross. Cortez refuses to overthrow 
Quetzal. Cuitlahautzin now appears and demands an interview 
with Montezuma, which is granted him; he forces the King to 
give up his crown, the Beak of Huitzil, and Montezuma returns 
to his captivity. Cuitlahautzin is immediately crowned by the 
priests and people, and declares war upon the Spaniards. Cor- 
tez, thinking Montezuma still retains his authority, sends him 
out on the palace roof to quiet the people, and the dethroned 
King is slain by the missiles of his former subjects. Huitzil, 
triumphant at the final outbreak of war, crushes the image of 
Quetzal by bis magic, and the masque closes, after the war-god's 
epilogue, with a tableaux of the battle on the causeway. La 
Noche Triste, into which the entire audience is drawn in the 
final carnival. 

The masque follows the general outline of the Conquest, but 
does not pretend to historical accuracy. 



THE MASQUE OF MONTEZUMA. 

SCENE I. 

[The scene is the City of Tenochtitlan, looking over 
the roofs of the great palace of the King. On the left 
and right are two broad stairways. At the top of the 
left flight is the shrine of Huitzil, the God of War. 
On the opposite side is the shrine of Quetzal. There is 
a statue in each shrine. When the scene opens it is 
dim moonlight. A procession of priests, led by the 
High Priest of Huitzil, mounts the stairs and halts 
before his shrine. The High Priest makes a silent in- 
vocation and, as the priests kneel, the statue comes 
alive and speaks over their heads.] 

HUITZIL. 

The skulls, the white skulls are fallen. 

I, Huitzilopotchli, 

I, the gleaner of battles 

Am ashamed, and my temple is naked beneath the 

moon. 
I, the War God, am thirsty and ashamed. 
The land of Tenochtitlan rots in the warm rains of 

peace. 
The people worship in the market places and my 

shrines are forlorn. 
They have rejected my chosen sons, 
They have put by the warriors whose locks I have 

anointed with flame. 
They have made a king of one who loves me not — 
A King of Montezuma ! 
They have forgotten me ! 

I have feasted long years in the caverns of Death and 
Silence ; 

Feasted with the ghosts of my own indomitable chil- 
dren; 

Feasted and sung in the gloom of sweet underworld 
meadows. 



We have drunk the warm blood. We have devoured 

the red hearts of our captives. 
We have been filled and our wrath has been comforted. 

Where now are the captives? 

Where now the new ghosts of swift warriors dying? 

Our feasting is lonely and my meadows are dry with 

the hateful dust of peace. 
I am choked with the dusty blowing of winds across 

my bloodless altars. 

I breathe on Tenochtitlan the white mist of my wrath. 

Lo, the east wind awakes. 

The east wind fawns like a hungry wolf before me. 

Tenochtitlan, I and the east wind, we two are singing 
together and our song is filled with the music of 
soaring arrows. 

Tenochtitlan sleeps, but I and the east wind have con- 
spired together. 

I have thirsted and slept in the shame of my hunger. 

Lo, now I awake. 

Lo, now I drink the scent of salt blood on the east 
wind. 

I awake to the new harvest. 

I awake to feast on the flowing ruin of the world. 

(The light fades from the shrine of Huitzil and the 
god again becomes a statue.) 

{A festival procession now mounts the north stairway 
and crosses to the shrine of Quetzal, hearing gar- 
lands of flowers.) 

PRIEST OF QUETZAL. 

Serpent of Light — Bird of the Dawn, Lord of the 
Clouds, 

Thou who makest fertile the small blind seeds of the 
world. 

Take these my gifts ! 

I bring thee flowers and ropes of fragrant vine. 

I sweeten thy house with song and a thousand prayers. 

I gladden thy courts with the dancing feet of girls. 

Keeper of the harvest, warder of the far hills, build- 
er of walls ! 



I bring thee flowers. 

Rise thou and return from the blue margin of the 

windy east. 
Lift thy face again above the pale barriers of the 

world ! 
Oh, thou Dweller in the Sun, 
Accept my gifts ! 

THE PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. 

Oh, thou Dweller in the Sun ! 

Thy people call thee. 

(Another procession also bearing flowers and led by 
the Second Priest of Huitsil, mounts the south stair 
and approaches the altar of Huitzil. Guatamotsin 
and Cuitlahautzin follow this procession.) 

SECOND PRIEST OF HUITZIL. 

Huitzil, Lord of Spears! Keeper of the Iron Halls 

of Death ! 
Thou who walkest among warriors as a strong man 

trampleth the grass of the hills, 
Accept my gifts. 

I bring thee fruits of the high orchards of Tallon. 
I brighten thy house with songs and the drums of war. 
I gird thy feet with circlets of golden grain. 
I bring thee crimson flowers ! 

THE HIGH PRIEST OF HUITZIL. 

{Stepping out from beside the shrine.) 
Hold ! Ye have wrought a sacrilege ! 
Ye have cast flowers upon the black altars of Huitzil. 

SECOND PRIEST. 

It is the will of the council. 

It is the will of the newly chosen King. 

HIGH PRIEST OF HUITZIL. 

Are they mad with pride that they dare to mock a 

hungry god! 
Would they feed an ocelot of the hills with bruised 

petals ! 



A vulture of the high air with scented grain ! 
Have they no slaves? 

SECOND PRIEST. 

It is forbidden that we make a sacrifice of blood. 
The harvests are heavy. We have need of slaves. 
The granaries are full. They must build walls. 

HIGH PRIEST OF HUITZIL. 

Have they no captives taken in war, 
No princes of tall cities, 

No alien priests, snatched from the golden shrines of 
the south? 

SECOND PRIEST. 

Master, the land is at rest. 
Our enemies are cast down. 
We dip our hands in the treasures of the houses of 

kings 
And no man says us nay. 

HIGH PRIEST OF HUITZIL. 

Shame to the strong lords of Tenochtitlan ! 

Shame to the sluggard princes that feast and grow 

fat! 
Shame to the miserly priests that hoard their gold and 

deny blood to the gods ! 

SECOND PRIEST. 

Master, there is no blood but our own to offer. 

HIGH PRIEST OF HUITZIL. 

Can ye dare this speaking! 

What of the warriors of Cholula ! 

Of the rebel spearmen flouting us from the roofs of 

Tlascala ! 
Are these cast down and conquered? 
Do ye dip your hands in treasure caskets of theirs? 
Blood of your own? 
Milk in the veins of men ! 
Water from a stagnant marsh! 



GUATAMOTZIN. 

The Master of the black altars speaketh in wisdom. 
We are slack in the honour due to the God of War. 
I am weary of peace and these fingers ache for the joy 
of strangling a foe. 

HIGH PRIEST OF QUETZAL. 

I command ye all to silence! 

I command ye in the name of the high council of 

chiefs ! 
The High Council of the city of Tenochtitlan. 

GUATAMOTZIN. 

Priest of Quetzal, I deny thy powers ! 

I will not be silenced ! 

I am no servant of thine indolent god. 

I am no man of peace, no tiller of gardens, no builder 

of walls ! 
The seeds of my sowing are the skulls of slain men ! 
The harvest of my hands, sheaves of spears. 
I am weary of peace. 

(There is a flare of music.) 

HIGH PRIEST OF QUETZAL. 

Make way ! Make way for the coming of Montezuma ! 

Make way for the ruler of men ! 

Make way for the chosen of the Gods ! 

(Immediately there is another flare of mmsic and all 
kneel except the two high priests, the Second Priest 
of Huitzil, Guatamotzin, and Cuitlahautzin, A pro- 
cession of priests and lords enter from the House of 
Montezuma, followed by Montezuma and the eldest 
chief of the council, who mount the throne in the 
center of the stage. Guatamotzin keeps his attitude 
of defiance until Cuitlahautzin puts his hand on his 
shoulder and leads him to Montezuma. Cuitlahaut- 
zin does homage, hut Guatamotzin remains standing. 
The mu^ic has continued to this point and only 
ceases when the eldest Chief raises his hand for si- 
lence.) 



THE OLD CHIEF. 

Men of Tenochtitlan, Warders of the Cactus Rock, 

Children of the Snake and the Eagle! 

Hear these my words ! 

The Tlacopan, council of chiefs, readers of omens, 
makers of law, wise among men. 

Speak with my mouth. 

It was decreed of the gods of air and water 

Whispered in the hearts of our chiefs. 

Cried in the secret ears of our priests. 

Lo ! They have heard ! They have chosen ! 

Through them I show ye the will of the gods. 

Stand forth Montezuma, Son of Axayacatl, 

Stand forth chosen of the council, 

Stand forth. Ruler of men. 

(Turning to the High Priest of Huitsil.) 

Priest of the winged Death! 

Watcher at the red doors of Doom ! 

Servant of the crying flame ! 

Stand forth! 

I speak the will of our chiefs. 

I speak the will of the Masters of the stonehills of 
Anahuac. 

It is the law. 

Place thou upon the head of Montezuma the beaked 
crown of Huitzil ! 

(The High Priest of Huitzil advances to the foot of 
the throne holding the crown in his hands. Monte- 
zuma takes the crown from him hut does not yet put 
it on his own head. He stands looking off over the 
city.) 

MONTEZUMA. 

Chosen of the Gods, 

Montezuma, Ruler of Men! 

Thus it was spoken. 

So I feel the heavy gold between my hands. 

Mine eyes are burnt with the shining of it. 

The splendour of the city shakes below me like the 

splendour of a mad sea under a golden moon. 
My pulses beat with dreams. 



My shoulders ache with the weight of flowers. 
I place the token of terror upon my brow. 
And, behold, I am the Law. 

HIGH PRIEST OF HUITZIL. 

Aye, thou shalt be the Law. 

It is spoken. 

Whosoever lifteth his hand against thy hand, 

Him shall the ravens of the stonehills take for their 

feasting. 
But hear me, O king — 
Me, the Prophet of Huitzil, 
He who starveth the gods must surely fall. 

MONTEZUMA. 

I revere thy god. 

I shall build him towers of black stone. 

I shall lift his altars, and they shall smite the silver 

bosom of the moon by night, 
And the fire of them dazzle the red sun by day. 
In his house shall be the continuous sound of bells. 
His floor shall run with wine. 

HIGH PRIEST OF HUITZIL. 

It is not enough. 

HIGH PRIEST OF QUETZAL. 

Montezuma shall not forget, 

He shall not forget his oath to Quetzal. 

The sacrifice of blood is forbidden. 

HIGH PRIEST OF HUITZIL. 

Montezuma, I warn thee. Huitzil hath slept too long. 
He is awake and thirsty. 

MONTEZUMA. 

Old Priest, I will not be crowned with menace. 
Hear me now ! I take this beaked diadem of thy god ! 
This sign that I am ruler and war chief ! 
I take it not as a token of blood. 



As a sign that I rule by the strength of spears alone. 
{He places the croivn upon his own head.) 

Behold! I am War Chief of Tenochtitlan, Ruler of 
Men. 

My heel is upon the neck of Princes, but I slay not in 
anger, 

I slay not to appease thee or thy importunate God. 

My land shall grow fat within the circle of my spear- 
men. 

I will feast upon the splendour of the West ; 

But I deny thee blood ! 

{A messenger has hurriedly mounted the stairs and 
now kneels before Montezuma.) 

MESSENGER. 

Three days have I run, and three nights ! 

I come from the far shores to eastward, 

From the margin of the sea whereof no man knoweth 

the end. 
I have seen a miracle. 
I and my brother drew nets at sunrise to honor the 

god of fishes. 
Suddenly out of the mist 
Over the face of the sea 

Rode towers of black wood with wings of silver. 
We saw them and were afraid. 
We were afraid and fell down upon the sand. 
Lo, when we arose, came living men in a canoe of 

wood, 
Men with beards upon their faces 
And their faces were pale as white stone. 
They spoke with strange words and had upon their 

bodies raiment of hammered silver. 

MONTEZUMA. 

Whence came these strangers? 

MESSENGER. 

I know not! I have run for three days and three 

nights to bear thee word. 
I have spoken! 



HIGH PRIEST OF QUETZAL. 

Bow down your faces, O lords of Tenochtitlan. 
A prophecy is fulfilled, but fear ye not ! 
It was written on the walls of the inner temple 
In the secret chambers of the great pyramid : 
/ shall return out of the east. 

Behold, he hath come. Quetzal returneth to Anahuac. 
The God of Peace returneth to bless the crowning of 
his chosen! 

MONTEZUMA. 

Now am I indeed a king ! 

HIGH PRIEST OF HUITZIL. 

Nay, Montezuma. Lift not thy voice in pride. 
The vultures of Huitzil are black against the sun. 
[Montezuma and his follozvers go hack into the house; 

Guatamotzin goes with the priests of Huitzil to the 

temple.'] 

SCENE TWO. 

SAME AS SCENE ONE. 

Montezuma enters, followed by the High Priest of 
Quetzal, the Priest of Huitzil, Cuitlahautzin, and Gua- 
tamotzin. Montezuma and the High Priest of Quetzal 
stand nearest the parapet and look off over the roofs 
of the city. Four months are supposed to have elapsed. 

MONTEZUMA. 

The faces of my captains are dark in council, O Priest ! 
Men threaten me with a strange doom. 

HIGH PRIEST OF QUETZAL. 

They have read the stars amiss ; 

The white strangers came not in anger against the be- 
loved of Quetzal. 

MONTEZUMA. 

Nay, I fear them not! < 

I have sent them an embassy ; • 



I have sent them the richest fabrics of my looms; 

Soft gold and gleanings of precious gems. 

Mine envoys have met them in peace, 

But I have forbidden them to cross the stone hills. 

I have forbidden them to look upon the sacred city 

and the houses of the gods. 
I have barred their way with my word. 

HIGH PRIEST OF QUETZAL. 

The word of Montezuma is a wall of basalt. 

MONTEZUMA. 

Thou hast spoken in wisdom. 

Behold that which lieth at our feet ! 

I am the Master of it! 

Master of the shining roofs ! 

Master of the lifting towers, the floating gardens of 
Chales and the stone gates of Tlaloc. 

The torches of my house are as splendid and as num- 
berless as the eyes of Night. 

They are shaken continually with the sound of golden 
bells. 

The naked air does me homage with the scent of per- 
fumed fire and bruised flowers. 

My courts are bright with the plumes of Kings. 

Their lips are warm upon the jewelled lashings of my 
sandals. 

CUITLAHAUTZIN. 

Brother and Lord! 

These men with the white faces and beards of gold; 
Perchance they walk the land heedless of thine author- 
ity! 
Perchance they may even pass the barrier of thy word I 

GUATAMOTZIN. 

It were better that they should learn the sound of thine 
arrows ! 

MONTEZUMA. 

Who hath not heard the name of Montezuma? 
Doth a man dare to look upon the sun with naked 
eyes ? 



Nay, Brother, if they come, it shall be as men won- 
dering and afraid. 

As men walking in the splendour of mad dreams. 

Their eyes shall be scorched with the blowing of scar- 
let banners, 

They shall wade to my throne ankle deep in flakes of 
beaten gold. 

[There is a sound of trumpets. The envoy of Monte- 
zuma zvith his attendants mounts the lower stairs and 
speaks from the landing. He bears in his hands the 
helmet of Cortes.] 

ENVOY. 

I bring thee words of the white captain, O Montezu- 
ma! 
I bring thee rich gifts and courteous replies, 
Fair speech and proffered friendship, 
Worthy to appease the wrath of the Ruler of Men. 

MONTEZUMA. 

Speak, bearer of my word and seal ! 

ENVOY. 

I have been as the wind to do thy bidding. 

I have seen for thee with mine eyes. I have spoken 
thy will with my lips. 

These are men of strength and beauty, O King! 

Men powerful in War! 

They have stormed the high walls of Tlascala. 

They have taken tribute of those that have denied tri- 
bute even unto thee. 

The Totonacs have made submission, and they have 
feasted in the halls of Cempoala. 

No man hath slain them in battle. 

They are sheathed in coats of thin silver and ride upon 
the backs of terrible beasts. 

Yet were we not afraid, since we bore the word of the 
Ruler of Men. 

MONTEZUMA. 

In what manner was mine embassy received? 



ENVOY. 

We came before their captain and chiefs. 

We spoke, as kings that speak in peace with a king ! 

We gave him thy gifts and the speaking of thy mouth, 

O Montezuma, 
And behold, it availed us nothing. 
These are his words, 

The words of the high captain of the East : 
"Take to Montezuma these conquests of Spain. 
"Take to him this helmet of carved silver, and say to 

him: 
" 'Hernando Cortez of Spain will seek audience at the 

foot of the altars of Quetzal. 
" 'He will see with his own eyes the face of the Ruler 

of the West.' " 

MONTEZUMA. 

And didst thou not forbid them the paths of my hills, 
the highways of my kingdom? 

ENVOY. 

These be men of a far land and tongue, O King! 
They know not thy glory or thy strength. 
They come despite thy command. 

HIGH PRIEST OF QUETZAL. 

Now is the time of the fulfilment of Prophecy. 
Surely these are gods since they deny the word of 
Montezuma ! 

CUITLAHAUTZIN. 

Yet do I mistrust their coming. 

Thy gifts have kindled their greed and greed maketh 
strong the arm of a foe. 

GUATAMOTZIN. 

I beseech thee, O my cousin and King, 

Let it be granted me to bar their way with spears. 

Let me shear the plumes of their crests with arrows. 

HIGH PRIEST OF HUITZIL. 

Yea, once again I warn thee, O child of the Clouded 
Sun, 



The wrath of Huitzil flares red on the eastern foam 

of the sea! 
His altars cry for the savour of blood ! 
Make sacrifice ere his last anger be launched upon 

thee and thy people. 

MONTEZUMA. 

{Turning upon him.) 
And must I still hear thy croaking, Raven of Doom! 
Upon my brow burns the sign of the Snake and the 

Eagle. 
Mine is the beaked crown and the highest favor of thy 

god! 
I am War Chief in Mictlan, High Priest of slumbering 

and of watchful Gods; 
Into my ears alone are whispered their warnings and 

behests. 
Wisdom of Day and Darkness lieth in the shallow cup 

of my hand, 
Take heed ! 

Speak to me no more wrath. 
Speak to me no more lest thine own blood be given to 

slake his drowsy thirst ! 
{He points to the statue of Huitzil, then turns to the 

Envoy.) 
Go ! Fill this helmet with quills of gold. 
Let the brim of it run over with rubies. 
Think you that Montezuma fears to tempt the greed 

of men. 
Am I a miser, shaking in the midst of an unguarded 

treasure house? 
Bear my words again to this stranger. 
Tell him the way is open. 
He shall feast in splendour with the Ruler of Men in 

the Courts of the Gods. 
Let him dare to pass the gates of Tlaloc. 
And he shall be struck blind with glory. 

ENVOY. 

I go with thy word, O beloved of the Sun. 



HIGH PRIEST OF HUITZIL. 

Now, in truth, is the Doom of Huitzil upon thee, O 

Montezuma. 
Thy words are as flying sparks to a dry moor. 
Thou hast balked the hunger of a god and raised the 

greed of a foe. 
Look well upon that which is thine, for to-morrow it 

will be thine no longer. 
Thou hast sent this stranger the keys of thy kingdom. 
I feel upon my brow the hot blowing of Fate, 
And in mine ears the roaring of black waters under the 

world. 

SCENE III. 

[The Causezvay. The Aztecs, priests and people, 
watching for the coming of the Spaniards.'] 

FIRST AZTEC WOMAN. 

Think you these pale gods will come over the cause- 
way? 
Shall we see them here? 

AN AZTEC WARRIOR. 

Aye, the divine Montezuma has bidden them come. 
They will not tarry. 

SECOND AZTEC WOMAN. 

Why not, think you ? If these be gods, 
Born of the Sun and the Sea, they are surely greater 
than the King. 

THE WARRIOR. 

If these be gods, they will lodge in the heart of 

Tenochtitlan, 
They will sleep where the bells of the temples will 

comfort them. 
If they be not gods — 

FIRST AZTEC WOMAN. 

See, see ! The priestesses from the temple of Quetzal ; 
They are bringing flowers and sweet grain. 



THE WARRIOR. 



It were better if they remained in their temple. 
Better, I fear me, if the black priests from the house 
of Huitzil came with their war drums. 

HIGH PRIEST OF HUITZIL. 

(Meeting the procession of priestesses.) 
What bear ye, dancers from the pyramid of Quetzal? 

FIRST PRIESTESS. 

Gifts to the gods. Aloes and grain and flowers. 

HIGH PRIEST OF HUITZIL. 

And think you these are gods, these strangers? 

FIRST PRIESTESS. 

These are the children of Quetzal, 
Pale sons of his glory. 

Risen out of the sea, messengers from the Star of the 
Morning, lords of our temple and all its mysteries. 

HIGH PRIEST OF HUITZIL. 

These are children of the wolves in Mictlan, 

Sent hither to break our pride, and to cleanse our tem- 
ples. 

Sent to restore the implacable gods. 

The flowing blood and the hot hearts between the lips 
of Huitzil. 

FIRST PRIESTESS. 

Our oracles have spoken. 

Our dancers have tasted the fire and the glory of 

morning has come upon us. 
We know these gods, that they are sons of Quetzal. 

HIGH PRIEST OF QUETZAL. 

(Entering along the causeway with priests.) 
Way, make way for the Child of the Sun. 
Way for the Ruler of Men, 
Way for the Divine Montezuma. 

(Guards enter and clear a space along the centre of the 
causeway; then slaves who lay down bright rugs; 



the priestesses of Quetzal strew the place with flow- 
ers. Enter Montezuma, home in a litter, Cuitla- 
hautzin walking beside him, and Guatomotzin behind 
him. At the centre of the causeway the procession 
stops, and Montezuma alights. After a pause, the 
trumpets sound and the Spaniards appear, space be- 
ing cleared for Cortez and Marina, who stop before 
the King, bowing low. 

MONTEZUMA. 

Welcome to the Island of the Snake and the Eagle, 

Welcome to Tenochtitlan. 

We have awaited your coming with long watches in 

the night, 
With searching of the stars, with flowers and flame 

before the gods. 
We have made ready a house which is a temple also; 
The sign of the four winds has been set before your 

doorway. 
And the serpents have been loosed that you may not 

again depart from us. 

CORTEZ. 

What means all this? 

MARINA. 

My lord, the King oflfers you for a palace the old tem- 
ple of Quetzal. 

CORTEZ. 

Show me, Marina, where the temple stands. 

MARINA. 

Yonder, my lord, between the war-god's pyramid and 
the blue lake. 

CORTEZ. 

A place where death leans close on either side. 

ALVARADO. 

This heathen, Captain, must be taught to fear, 
Or we shall never hear again the bells 
Of Spain. 



CORTEZ. 

I will not march into a trap. 

Marina, tell the King the tale I bade you. 

MARINA. 

Great Montezuma, 

Descendant of the Sun, lord of the stone hills of Ana- 

huac, 
My master, the lord Cortez, whose slave I am, bids me 

speak. 
He bids me say that there are birds of evil rumour, 
And that the crying of these black birds is against his 

heart, and arouseth his anger. 
He has ever believed in thy greatness and thy love. 
But in Cholula the people knew him not, and set snares 

for him, and would have destroyed him ; 
Whereat he arose and laid waste their city as a god in 

his anger would lay it waste. 

MONTEZUMA. 

I have forgiven Malinche the deaths of my false serv- 
ants, and the ruin of my city of Cholula. 

MARINA. 

My lord has closed his ears to the birds of evil report, 
He has called his four winds to blow them away. 
But still they clamour about him. 

MONTEZUMA. 

What of their clamour? 

Kings heed it not, and gods know the truth, surely. 

MARINA. 

Gods ask for flowers and praise in their temples, O 

King. 
And these evil tongues make mischief with thy sacred 

name. 
They say thou hast barred the way of my lord, 
They say thou hast set thy warriors to harry his march. 
That thou didst command the snares he broke down 

at Cholula — 
(Montezuma raises his hand in angry protest.) 



CORTEZ. 

Anger him not. Say I am filled with mercy. 
But I must lodge in his house. 

MARINA. 

My lord would still these dark rumours that cloud his 
friendship. 

He bids me say that he is but the messenger of one 
greater than he ; 

But it is forbidden that he lodge in the temple of Quet- 
zal. 

MONTEZUMA. 

I have appointed his place in my city. 

MARINA. 

There is a way, most glorious king, to slay these lies 

and to make them silent forever. 
Do thou take my lord and his pale men into thy house, 
Into the very palace of the Sun. 

CUITLAHAUTZIN. 

My brother, this were the ruin of thy kingdom. 

MARINA. 

Is not the palace of Montezuma spacious? Is it not 

rich? 
Are not its walls strong and its courts pleasant? 
Has it not meat and bread enough for a great king's 

guests? 

CORTEZ. 

Thus only will I enter his city. 

To lodge with him in his own house. 

CUITLAHAUTZIN. 

What new rumours will take wing, my brother. 
If thou lead into thy house the enemies of Huitzil, 
Thou, who wearest the crown of the god? 

MARINA. 

My lord believes nothing against the divine Montezu- 
ma, 



Else he would not enter his city, but would shatter it 
into dust with the wind of his wrath. 

MONTEZUMA. 

I do not rule over the birds of ill omen. 

MARINA. 

If thou lovest my lord, great King, or if thou fearest 

the gods, 
Or if thou hast pride in the palace of thy fathers, 
Thou wilt heed what I have spoken for my lord 

Cortez. 

THE PRIEST OF QUETZAL. 

Does the Child of the Sun hesitate? Then is the Star 
of the Morning gone down in scorn. 

MONTEZUMA. 

Nay, my people. I have chosen my guests. 
Shall I not lodge them as becomes a king? 
Say to thy master, He shall enter by the door of the 
eagle and the embattled serpent. 

MARINA. 

He yields, my lord. He takes thee and thy spearmen 

to his own palace. 
(Cortes makes a deep obeisance to Montezuma, then 

draws his sword and holds it before him.) 

CORTEZ. 

Forward ! Into the city. 

(Montezuma steps into his litter and is borne back the 

way he came, the Spaniards and Aztecs following in 

procession.) 

SCENE IV. 

It is dawn on the palace roof. A Spanish sentinel 
stands on the south landing of the great stairway. A 
party of Aztec warriors and priests creep up the lower 
flight, seize him and drag him across and up the north 
stairway to the altar of Huitzil, where they sacrifice 
him. Two Spanish soldiers, sleeping beside the door 



of Montezuma's house, are awakened and give the 
alarm. Alvarado rushes out zinth a few soldiers and is 
met by the Aztecs in the centre of the upper platform. 
Cortez, with his troops, rushes down the stairway, 
crosses and fights his ivay up to the altar. The Aztecs 
are killed or driven into the house of Huitzil behind the 
shrine. Father Olmedo enters from the house of 
Montezuma, follozved by Diaz bearing a wooden cross. 

OLMEDO. 

Mary have pity on this broken flesh. 
This tortured thing that had no priestly shrift, 
On black and hideous altar. Hear ye all! 
I charge ye in the names of God and Spain, 
Hurl down this grinning demon, raise the cross 
To cleanse this breathing horror and make pure 
The- red pollution of this bloody house. 
{The soldiers tear down the statue of Huitzil; Diaz 
sets up the Cross in its place, then points to the stat- 
ue of Quetzal.) 

DIAZ. 

There leers another of their cursed gods, 
With mocking mouth athirst for Spanish blood, 
And crooked fingers itching for our throats. 

OLMEDO. 

Crush him to dust beneath your angry feet, 
Break him to pieces in the name of Christ 
And end this horror. 

CORTEZ. 

Father, stay thy hand. 
This other image hath a kindlier mien 
And gentler Priesthood. Him I choose to spare, 
Because his rites are bloodless as our own. 
His sign the cross. 

(To Alvarado and the others.) 

You, Pedro, guard the stairs, 
And look to all defenses! 
{Father Olmedo and Diaz with several soldiers go into 



the House of Montezuma. Alvarado stations guards 
at the head of both stairways, while Cortes stands 
alone in the centre of the platform where he is 
joined by Marina. 

Cuitlahautzin mounts the stairs from below followed 
by GuatamotBin, the Old Councillor, the High Priest 
of Huitzil and several spearmen. They stop at the 
middle landing and Cuitlahautzin faces Cortez.) 

CUITLAHAUTZIN. 

The hands of my warriors are dipped in blood. 
There is no voice in Tenochtitlan to stay them, 
No sacrifice great enough to appease the gods. 
Where is Montezuma, my brother? 
Where is the child of the Sun ? 

MARINA. 

Master, it is the Prince Cuitlahautzin. 
He would speak with Montezuma. 

CORTEZ. 

Say to him that the King is my guest. 

Say that he sleepeth soundly beneath my roof. 

CUITLAHAUTZIN. 

Malinche, we have trusted in the blind prophecy of 

fools. 
We have opened our gates in peace. 
Our warriors have been as babes in thy hands. 
Our captains have been as women to do thee service. 
We have spread thee a great feast and the wine has 

turned to bitter blood. 
Behold, we are babes and women no longer. 
Thy house is girt with a sea of angry spears. 
The city rocks beneath thee. 
I must speak with Montezuma ! 
The Ruler of Men must hear my voice. 
He must lift his hand that the Kingdom may know 

he lives. 

CORTEZ (To Alvarado). 
Bring forth the King that he may still this rage. 



MARINA. 

Nay, Master, I fear some craft. 

I fear the cunning of the black priests. 

I beg of thee, let them not speak with Montezuma. 

(Alvarado goes into the house and brings out Monte- 
zuma, who descends the south stairway, closely fol- 
lowed by a guard of Spanish soldiers. He and' 
Cuitlahaiitzin face each other on the centre landing. 
The Spaniards remain a short distance from him, 
the other Aztecs withdrawing to an equal distance,- 
Cuitlahautzin kneels, and Montezuma lifts his hand 
as if in blessing.) 

MONTEZUMA. 

Speak, Cuitlahautzin ! 
Speak, my brother! 

CUITLAHAUTZIN. 

I come to thee in the name of the High Council and 

the Priests of thy Gods. 
I come to ask of thee a token of thine authority. 
Thou hast feasted and slept in the house of the 

Stranger. 
Thou hast feasted and the roots of the world are 

loosened by the pale rains of fear. 
Thou hast slept and no man knoweth the keeper of 

thy kingdom. 

MONTEZUMA. 

I am the keeper of my kingdom! 
I am the Law ! 

CUITLAHAUTZIN. 

Then give me a sign that the council may hear me 

speak thy will. 
(Montezuma takes a bracelet from his arm and offers 

it to Cuitlahautzin, who makes no move to take it.) 

MONTEZUMA. 

Take back to my chiefs this armlet of beaten silver. 
Say to the high lords and priests of Tenochtitlan that 

I, Montezuma, speak with the mouth of my brother. 
Seeking the safety of my people and the favour of the 

gods. 



These are my words ! 

I make a friend of Malinche, the Pale Captain, that 

rrty people may not perish. 
For I tell thee, a god walketh at his shoulder. 
We are as children to go against him with spears. 
We are as babes to go against him with craft and the 

cunning of lies. 
Bid all men to be silent. 
Bid them await my will. 
By this token I charge them to obey thy word. 

CUITLAHAUTZIN. 

Brother, it is not enough. 

They will make a mockery of my speaking. 

They will deny my word! 

I must bear them a graver token. 

MONTEZUMA. 

What graver token wouldst thou ask? 

CUITLAHAUTZIN. 

The beaked crown. 

MONTEZUMA. 

No! 

CUITLAHAUTZIN. 

I demand of thee the sacred sign of Huitzil. 

(Montezuma and Cuitlahautzin gaze at each other 
fixedly for a moment. Then Montezuma wavers, 
puts up his hands and removes the crown which he 
hands to Cuitlahautzin.) 

MONTEZUMA. 

My priesthood, my kingdom, my city ! 

(He turns and goes slowly up the south stairs, fol- 
lowed by the Spanish guard. Cuitlahautzin stands 
with the crown in his hands until Montezuma has 
entered the house.) 

CUITLAHAUTZIN. 

Thy city moans behind me like a storm-beaten sea. 
(To the High Priest of Huitzil, who stands behind 
hiM.) 



Warder of the dread and silent altars, 
Watcher at the gate through which no king returns, 
Stand forth and hear me. 
I was the chosen of thy unforgiving God! 
In my heart burned the kingly fire of his veins. 
On my brow, alone, flamed the bright sear of his lips. 
I was the child of Huitzil and they passed me by. 
They passed me by and the sowing of their hands 
hath brought the ruin of the world ! 

HIGH PRIEST OF HUITZIL. 

Thou hast spoken in truth, O Prince. 

CUITLAHAUTZIN. 

Behold this kingdom which I ask is a shattered thing. 
Yet am I not afraid. 

The strength of mine arms shall make it whole. 
The hills shall be firm again beneath the feet of mine 

armies. 
(He gives the crown to the Hi^h Priest of Huitzil 

and kneels before him with bowed head.) 

HIGH PRIEST OF HUITZIL {To his Companions), 

Is it your will that this man be King? 

Is it your will, or dare ye again outface the anger of 

the Princes of Death? 
Speak, that I may know your will. 

OLD COUNCILOR. 

The council hath spoken. 

Place thou the crown upon the head of this Prince. 

{The High Priest of Huitzil places the croivn upon 
the head of Cuitlahautzin, who rises to his feet and 
menaces Cortez with his clenched fist.) 

CUITLAHAUTZIN. 

Hear me now ! Hear me and beware my wrath ! 
I am King and Captain in Mictlan. 
I am Master of Spears! 
I am Ruler of Men! 

Thy craft and the strength of thy gods aflfright me 
not! 



Thy heart shall melt in the black jaws of Huitzil. 

Thy blood shall foam about his brazen anklets. 

I will rend thee limb from limb, that the blind vul- 
tures may strip thy bones, 

That the wolves may know thee under the white hor- 
ror of the frozen moon. 

Behold, I lift my hand and thine ears are smitten 
with the baying of the hounds of Death. 

(Cuitlahaut^in lifts his hand and there is a terrible 
roar from the Aztecs. The spearmen crowd up 
the stairway, hut Cuitlahautzin stands motionless. 
The Spaniards form for the defense of the roof. 
Cortes points to the house of Montezuma. Alva- 
rado rushes in and brings out the King. They lead 
him to the centre of the platform, where he stands 
covering his face with his hands. The Aztecs be- 
come silent.) 

MARINA. 

My master bids thee speak and quiet thy people. 
He bids thee speak as war chief. 

ALVARADO (Fiercely to Marina.) 

Tell him to send these dogs of hell to their reeking 
kennels. 

(Montezuma draws himself up with dignity and ad- 
vances to the edge of the platform^ He lifts his 
hand, but before he can speak there is a terrible, 
shout and the Aztecs attack him from below with 
a storm of stones and javelins; he falls back 
wounded among the Spaniards. Cortez, seeing that 
the dethroned king is dead, points to the street 
below and the soldiers hurl the body over the 
parapet. Lights out. The god Huitzil appears in a 
glow before the image of Quetzal.) 

HUITZIL. 

Now is my crown returned unto my chosen. 

The Beak of Flame to the eagle. 

Mine image is cast down, but mine altars stand, and 

my madness is upon my people. 
Cry thy four winds to avenge thee, O Quetzal, 



Cry to thy girls and bid them bind me with flowers, 

Cry to thy strangers, if they be mighty. 

For I am come to my feasting ; 

My hand is heavy upon thine images. 

Lo, now I smite thee, and thou shalt break and topple 

before me ; 
Lo, now I launch against thee my wrath, and thou 

shalt fall unto dust beneath the fire of it. 

{The image of Quetzal falls from its pedestal.) 

The strangers shall go out along the causeways, and 

the skies shall be darkened with arrows ; 
They shall tremble at the thunder of my war drums; 
They shall be drenched in a storm of spears. 

Behold, here I make a magic, the magic of the tem- 
pest of Huitzil. 

I call from the world of the dead mine invincible 
armies, 

From the caverns of darkness the troops of my daunt- 
less implacable children; 

They shall rise and their shields shall make bright the 
mountains and the lakes shall foam beneath their 
whirling feet; 

They shall sweep across the strangers as a wave. 

And when the flood falls and the dawn breaks 

I shall feed full, and mine altars shall redden, and my 
war drums shall sound my victories 

Even to my temple beside the meadows of death. 



SCENE V. 

LA NOCHE TRISTE. 

{The causeway. Night time lighted by moon and 
torches. The Spaniards are seen in procession, 
fighting their way across the causeway. The Az- 
tecs fight from below. Into this battle picture the 
entire audience is drawn and the Masque ends in a 
carnival. 



THE MASQUE 

OF 

QUETZAL'S BOWL 



THE MASQUE OF QUETZAL^S 
BOWL 



WRITTEN FOR THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF 

THE HOUSE WARMING OF THE 

CLIFF-DWELLERS 

BY 

Thomas Wood Stevens and 
Kenneth Sawyer Goodman 

CHARACTERS IN THE WORK SHOP 

AN ARTIFICER Hart Conway 

AN ANTIQUARIAN . . Donald Robertson 

CHARACTERS IN THE VISION 

COCIJO-EZA— M^ Old King . Robert R. Jarvie 
COCIJO-PIJ— M^ Young King . K. S. Goodman 
\Jl]A-TAO- High Priest of Mitla 

Thos. W. Stevens 
AN AZTEC COUNCILOR . Charles E. Nixon 
A COPA Allen E. Philbrick 

Scene I~An Artificer's Work Shop 

Scene II— The Artificer's Vision— A Temple at Mitla 
Scene III— The Work Shop 

Scenery by ALLEN E. PHILBRICK 



t 



41 

tl 



THE MASQUE OF QUETZAL'S 
BOWL 

In the Workshop. 

The Scene is the workroom of the Artificer. 
He is an elderly man, very dry and matter- 
of-fact, and is engaged in restoring small 
pieces of metal-work and pottery for the Mu- 
seum, The center of the stage is occupied by 
a plain deal table, upon which is a collection 
of small cups, terra-cotta figures, bottles of 
cement, pots of paint, brushes, etc. The Arti- 
ficer is zvorking at one end of this table. He 
faces the right of the stage. At the opposite 
end of the table, covered with a piece of black 
cloth, is the Bowl, There is only one door to 
the room; this is at the right, near the back. 
Entire back wall is occupied by a large case 
with shelves. To the left, behind the Arti- 
ficer, is a safe, upon which stands a small 
lunch basket. As the curtain rises, the Arti- 
ficer IS holding one of the figurines in his hand 
and putting the last touches on it with a long- 
handled brush. 

ARTIFICER 

O ! NOW ! One more little dab and 

you'll look quite as if you had never 

been broken. There ! No ! Just a 

bit more and perhaps a touch of black 

lips. How's that? Ha, ha! Perfect! 




Perfect! Ha, ha! Perfect! Stand over there. 
Nothing for them to do now but print you a 
label. 

{To the other objects on the table) 
Come, step up. Who's next? Who's next, I 
say. Oh, you, eh? Well, what's the trouble 
with you? 

{A timid rap on the door to which the 
Artificer pays no attention) 
A serious wound, eh? A bad fracture, eh? Been 
in poor health for three thousand years ? Pshaw ! 
that's nothing. I've had patients come to me in 
far worse shape. Cement will fix you. That's 
it — So. You're not more than a five minute job. 

{A louder tap on the door) 
When I've done with you and they get you under 
glass, people will hardly believe you ever saw the 
inside of a tomb. 

{The door opens and the Antiquarian 
enters. He stands, listening.) 
Why, I've seen the Arabs selling thousands like 
you, fresh from Birmingham by the last boat. It 
takes a sixth sense to tell the genuine. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

I beg your pardon. 

ARTIFICER 

Good evening! Have you been here long? 



ANTIQUARIAN 

Only a moment. You didn't hear when I 
knocked, so I took the liberty of coming in. I 
say, you didn't hear me when I knocked. 

ARTIFICER 

Oh, yes, I heard you knock. You knocked three 
times, 

ANTIQUARIAN 

Twice. 

ARTIFICER 

If you had knocked four times, I should have 
said "Come in." That's a system of mine. It's 
very clever, I think. You see, if people just 
knock out of curiosity, they never knock more 
than three times, then they go away. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

But, doesn't it annoy you to have people knock- 
ing so long? 

ARTIFICER 

Not so much as to have people come in while I 
am at work. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

I'm very sorry. 

ARTIFICER 

Pray don't apply the remark. Can I serve you? 

ANTIQUARIAN 

Possibly. Yes — in fact, I think you might be of 
service to me. But, may I ask what you are do- 
ing, and why you are doing it ? 

ARTIFICER 

I am a doctor for sick antiquities — a surgeon for 
broken pottery and battered metal ware. You 
see my patients. I put them in good health for 



the Museums and Collectors. Have you any- 
thing to mend? Did the Director of the Museum 
send you? 

ANTIQUARIAN 

No one sent me, and I have nothing to mend. 

ARTIFICER 

That's curious. Very few people come in here 
unless someone sends them. I failed to catch 
your name. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

I did not give you my name. You would not 
know me by reputation. I believe I happened 
in merely by instinct. May I look at your pa- 
tients? I feel that you have something here 
which I would very much like to examine. 

ARTIFICER 

It is an interesting group, tonight. This is an 
Osiris from Thebes. Here is a splendid bit of 
Memphian goldwork, — a queen's amulet; a cano- 
pic jar; — a nice Etruscan necklace, very nearly 
perfect — and several other things, I've barely 
had time to look them over myself. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

(with intention) 
Yes, yes, I see. But do you happen to have any 
drinking cups — any bowls that were ever used 
for making libations — any urns or vases or jars 
that ever held wine of any description? 

ARTIFICER 

You will find excellent collections of such things 
at the Museum. I believe there are some in the 



Egyptian section, a great many in the gold room, 
Tyrian, Phoenician, Assyrian, Roman, and, of 
course, more recent pieces, Florentine, Venetian 
and the like. You are familiar with our Mu- 
seum? 

ANTIQUARIAN 

I think I can claim to be familiar with your Mu- 
seum — and with a great many others. Yours is 
very wonderful. 

ARTIFICER 

I'm glad to hear you say so. We take a great 
deal of pride in it. It is wonderfully instructive 
— wonderfully instructive. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

It is full of beautiful things. It is like a great 
illustrated book of history. It is very instruc- 
tive, as you say — a treasure house, where the 
treasure belongs to anyone who cares to go and 
look at it. Your city is very fortunate. 

ARTIFICER 

I am glad to hear you say so. Our Director 
would be glad to hear you say so. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

There is much to enjoy in your Museum, — much 
to wonder at and dream over — but the cases 
which contain drinking cups and wine jars, — 
they depress me. 

ARTIFICER 

I do not understand you. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

In a wine cup the material is nothing, the work- 



manship is nothing. I do not stop to look or 
listen because nothing moves or sings. The 
Dream is locked up as securely as the clay or the 
gold or the jade or the crystal. 

ARTIFICER 

But, just now you were asking to see drinking 
cups and wine jars. I think you said you were 
particularly interested in such things. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

Not when they are under glass. When a wine 
cup is once labeled and under glass it is dead, 
pitiful, dry forever, — utterly uninteresting. Un- 
less you can take it out, wet its thirsty lips and 
bring it to Hfe, it has nothing to tell you. I care 
only for the cups which have not yet been ranged 
along your terrible galleries or tortured in the 
neat cabinets of your dry collections. Poor, an- 
cient, thirsty, living cups which I can take in my 
own hands, rescue to kindlier use, fill and keep 
filled with wine. 

ARTIFICER 

This is very curious. Are you a collector or only 
a literary man? 

ANTIQUARIAN 

I am a Hunter of Lost Visions. Every act was 
born of a vision. All the finished dramas, the 
chiseled and polished marbles, the canvases and 
fabrics of granite and bronze, all the feastings 
and revels and wars -of kings, all the amours 
of queens and courtesans, the creeds, the here- 



sies, the terrors, the reformations of the world 
begin and end in visions which do not die. It 
is my profession to restore some of those which 
are lost. 

ARTIFICER 

This is most amazing ! 

ANTIQUARIAN 

I Specialize in such shadows and pictures as 
swim just beneath the surface of cool wine, 
when it lies in old goblets of any sort, provided, 
of course, that they were ever used for such a 
purpose — I can do nothing with water. You 
would be amazed to know how many of the 
sounding victories of the earth began at the 
bottom of a wine cup. 

ARTIFICER 

I cannot exactly follow you. Of what does your 
collection consist? To what use do you put it? 

ANTIQUARIAN 

I have many little things that would scarcely 
catch the eye of an ordinary antiquarian, they 
appear so common at first glance. 

ARTIFICER 

For example? 

ANTIQUARIAN 

Well, for example, two little black earthenware 
cups from the Necropolis of Tharros and Carolis 
from which Hamilcar drank native wine, when 
he rested in Sardinia on his way to the con- 
quest of Sicily. These hold wild visions splotched 
with the black shadows of Roman eagles. Then 



I have a bronze cup from which Menephta sucked 
the first long draughts after the defeat of the 
Shardana at the mouth of the Nile, years before 
they carved the Httle men with the two-horned 
helmets on the speos of Ipsamboul and the pylons 
of Medinet Abou. I also have the cup which 
touched the lips of Antony as the galleys swung 
into line at Actium. It holds only a faint rumor 
of surging water, the clear face of Cleopatra and 
voluptuous murmurings of stringed instruments. 

ARTIFICER 

But the use to which you put these ? 

ANTIQUARIAN 

Simple enough. For instance, not long ago I 
met a young friend, once a poet of great promise. 
For a year he had written nothing. The power, 
the urge, the whatever-you-wish-to-name-it, had 
left him. He told me his soul was dead. That 
night we dined in my house. He drank cham- 
pagne from a goblet out of which the divine 
Sapho had sipped fire in the shade of the myrtles 
of Mytilene. Today his is a name to conjure 
with. 

ARTIFICER 

This is very fanciful, very charming, to be sure, 
but as you see, I have only the figurines, the amu- 
lets and these others. I am afraid I can be of no 
service to you this evening. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

Are you sure you have nothing else? I am so 



rarely mistaken when I trust to my instinct. 

ARTIFICER 

There is nothing, I assure you, sir, except a 
piece of prehistoric western ware, which has been 
committed to me to be repaired and then placed 
in the American collection, unless — 

ANTIQUARIAN 

Unless ? 

COI.I.ECTOR 

Unless I should see overpowering reasons for be- 
stowing it elsewhere. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

May I see it ? 

ARTIFICER 

It is under that black cloth. 

{The Antiquarian raises the cloth and 
his eyes become greedy) 

ANTIQUARIAN 

Do you know the history of this piece ? 

ARTIFICER 

It is a household piece used only for storing 
grain. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

You are wrong. Man! Man! If this Bowl 
were filled with wine, the spirit of the old West 
would cry from it. We might even glimpse the 
dream of an Empire which failed. I have seen 
but one such Bowl in my life, and I could not 
touch it. You must let me have this — I say you 
must let me have this. I can put it to great use. 



ARTIFICER 

Pray, sir, be calm. Your enthusiasm has run 
away with your judgment. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

It has held the wine of Quetzal in some Aztec 
temple — ^the juice — 

ARTIFICER 

You are mistaken. It has held only corn, and 
later, possibly, a little dust. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

I am never mistaken. Do you think I cannot feel 
the vision throbbing to be set free ? I can almost 
hear the Zapotec war drums. Oh, Mitla, Mitla, 
your gate of death might be mirrored in this 
Bowl. Oh, Cozaana — Pitao — Cozaana, Oh, Hui- 
chaana. Oh, forgotten gods, what could you tell 
me from the new wine! You must let me have 
this Bowl — Its place is waiting. 

ARTIFICER 

I am sorry to disappoint you, sir, but I cannot 
do that without overpowering reasons. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

You do not know how much of the new world 
is built upon old visions. What is there in our 
art, our literature, our material grandeur which 
has not come, some way, some how — from the 
old, and to you the old means Egypt, Greece, 
Rome. The young men cry for the great Amer- 
ican spirit, but the new visions are so hard to 
win and the old so hard to restore, — when the 



blind and the careless insist upon locking them 
away. 

ARTIFICER 

Something in that, but — not sufficient. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

I will dedicate this Bowl to the uses of cheer and 
good fellowship. I will unprison its dreams for 
a circle of poets and artists and makers of music. 
You must let me take it with me. Its place is 
waiting. 

ARTIFICER 

It is quite impossible. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

Blind and deaf! 

ARTIFICER 

Possibly; but I must refuse you, sir, finally. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

It is not my first failure. I beg you to pardon 
my intrusion. 

ARTIFICER 

It has been a pleasure. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

Goodnight. 

(Exit) 

ARTIFICER 

Fantastic old party. (Yawns.) Jove, Vm more 
than tired! Hello! Why come to think of it I 
haven't taken time to eat my supper. Whew, 
well, I must eat, I suppose. Let me see what 
Martha has put in my basket this time. 

(He picks up the basket and takes out 
the cold supper.) 



Some chicken, a couple of lettuce sandwiches and 
a bottle of wine. 

{He holds up the bottle, looks at the 

label, glances at the Bowl, then at 

the door, then stands gazing into 

the Bowl, half fascinated.) 

I wonder! I wonder! I wonder! {Touches 

the Bowl.) 

There is nothing strange about it that I can see. 
The usual design, little figures, rather crude at 
that. The old gentleman must be just a trifle 
cracked. Pity I couldn't fix him up with some 
of my cement Ha, ha ! a pity ! 

{Looks more closely.) 
My eyes must be terribly tired. I wonder — I 
wonder — Why the thing seems to glow — posi- 
tively — there seems to be a little swirling mist 
at the bottom of it. I wonder — I wonder. {He 
looks at the bottle.) He said Wine! Well, well, 
I'll risk a few drops — just a very few drops on a 
chance. 

{He pours from the bottle, then as if 
his wrist were being held by an un- 
seen person, the bottle is tilted 
slowly and the entire contents flow 
into the Bowl.) 
How's this! I feel as though someone were 
holding my wrist with icy fingers. 




{The lights go down. There is a roll 

of drums and the curtain falls.) 
HBN the lights come on, the scene 
is the interior of the temple of the 
Zapotecs at Mitla. At one side, a 
door leading to the other parts of the 
temple; at the other, a stone which closes the 
gateway to the under world, the cave of Chalca- 
tongo. Beside this stone is a figure of Tlael- 
quani. The idols of the two great gods stand 
at the hack of the stage. The dead body of the 
last king, Cocijo-eza, lies in state at the left of 
the stage, the feet toward the door of the under- 
world. Acolytes {guardians and sacrificers) 
prostrate themselves beside the body, praying for 
the admittance of the dead king. The high 
priest, Uija-tao, stands motionless before the 
image. 

UIJA-TAO 

{To the Barth goddess.) 

Tlaelquani — Tlaelquani — Tlaelquani, 
Goddess of Earth and Night, Eater of Sin, 
Thou who devour est the black burdens of the 

drowned spirit of man. 
Be merciful. 
Open the stone gateway — Open the caverns of 

Night 
Open the Hunting grounds of Death. 



Tlaelquani — Tlaelquani — Tlaelquani. 

A dead king waits at thy gateway, 

A dead king waits here at the place of resting of 

the winds 
The spirit of the dead king waits. 
Open thy gateway, Tlaelquani. 
{He pauses.) 

THE KNEELING PRIESTS 

Open thy gateway, Tlaelquani. 

{There is a moment of stillness; then 
Uija-tao turns and dismisses the 
priests, going himself to the god 
Cozaana Pitao.) 

UIJA-TAO 

Cozaana — Pitao — Cozaana — 
Father of the lords of Dawn and Twilight, 
Father of the strong mighty wind Piji-taO; 
Creator of Beasts, illuminator of Earth, pro-cre- 
ator of Life. 
Thy prophet speaks. 
Is it bidden that this king shall wait outside the 

gateway till the stone rots down? 
Is it bidden that this king shall never find the 

peace of Darkness? 
Is it bidden that thy prophet shall cry before 

thee in vain forever? 

{He waits for an answer, then speaks 
again. ) 
I have brought thee the ropes of twisted grass, 



with the blood of thy priests sprinkled upon 
them; 
I have poured out to thee the rich juice of the 

agave, and the waters of Chalcatongo. 
I have filled for thee the sacred Bowl. Thou art 

silent. 
Be it so, Cozaana, Pitao. There are greater gods. 
I will carry my sacrifice away. 
I will pray no more to little gods who eat and 
are fat but speak not. 

{He takes the Bowl over to Hui- 
chaana.) 
Huichaana, mighty mother of Life, embracer of 

the white sun, 
Huichaana, goddess of the still and the sliding 
waters, mother of fishes, creatrix of men — 
Thy prophet calls thee. 
If thou hearest me, let there be in mine ears a 

roar of great white waters; 
Let there be a breaking of silver waves against 
thy golden anklets. 

(Watching the Bowl.) 
Huichaana, the dead king waits — Art thou silent ? 
(He backs azvay and looks at the 
great image.) 
These gods are cold to us. 

(He goes to the dead king and speaks 
to him.) 



Cocijo-eza, lord of Mitla, the gates are closed to 

thee, 
The gods will not speak, the earth mother will 

not eat thy sins. 
Thou shalt wander, and the slanting whips of the 

sunlight shall scourge thy naked spirit. 
I can do nothing. 

{He turns again to the Cozaana im- 
age, and speaks familiarly.) 
Little god, I am minded to smite thee on thy 

silent mouth. 
Ungrateful one. 

{To Huichaana.) 
Little fish lady, why art thou so scornful? I 
have fed thee well and thou hast drunk deep. 
I begin to think thou art none too virtuous, fish 
lady, in thy green waters. 

{Seats himself by the altar of the 
Cozaana, and speaks over his shoul- 
der to the dead king.) 
Old king, I have fed these gods well and they are 

snoring beasts, 
I like it not, for thou. King, hast fed me well. 
Thou hast sent me the richest sweetness of the 

land of Mitla. 
I have drunk the headiest wine of agave and 

spiced syrups. 
Thou hast sent me thy fairest, thy richest, the 



jewels of thy house, the crowns of thy kingdom. 

Thou hast built for me this palace, 

For me and these stubborn little gods; I am 

grateful. 
Take heed, Cozaana Pitao, thy seer is grateful. 

(A sound of steps is heard. Uija- 
tao throws himself into an attitude 
of prayer. Enter a Co pa, or Aco- 
lyte.) 
My son, what drives thee. 

What drives thee to break the speech of a prophet 
with his gods. 

THE COPA 

Cocijo-pij, the new King, waits at the door, O 
prophet. 

UIJA-TAO 

This Cocijo-pij — this king — he comes alone? 

THE COPA 

An Aztec comes with him — a man of Tenochtit- 

^^^- UIJA-TAO 

The gods love not these Aztecs. 

THE COPA 

Is it the wish of the prophet that one watch ? 

UIJA-TAO 

The gods watch here. Open the door to this 
king. 

THE COPA 

It shall be done. 

UIJA-TAO 

Wait. Let thine eyes watch too. I would not 
have this Aztec come too near the gods. 



(The Copa goes out. Uija-tao waits 
by the Cozaana. Enter Cocijo-pij 
with an Aztec counselor. They 
salaam before the high priest.) 
Arise, young king. The gods welcome thee. 

COCIJO-PIJ 

I come to bring my sacrifices to the great temple. 
I come to ask of the gods luck in my kingdom. 
I have given the hair of the maize to Piji-tao. 
I have given my sins to Tlaelquani to devour. 
I come now to pledge the smoking hearts of my 

captives, 
The red hearts of my foes, to Cozaana Pitao, 
The cold hearts to Huichaana, to the mother of 

men and fishes. 
I have come to bow before thee, O Prophet. 

UIJA-TAO 

This is a wise coming. And how hast thou en- 
tered my temple? 

COCIJO-PIJ 

Through the little door — the little door that is 
for kings and war chiefs. 

UIJA-TAO 

This is good speaking, son of Cocijo-eza. 
Thou shalt rule long in Tehuantepec, 
And our Zapotec nation shall bow before thee 
While still thou reverest the gods, and feedest 

them well ; 
And the four Chacs, the rain gods, shall bless 

thee, 



And thy people shall prosper through the round 

years. 
I, Uija-tao, Prophet of the Shrines of Mitla, I 

bless thee, O King Cocijo-pij. 

COCIJO-PIJ 

O Seer, there is another speaking I must make: 
My cousin, Montezuma, the sun of the Aztecs, 
Shall he, too, prosper ? 

UIJA-TAO 

It is ill that the blood of thy mother is strong in 

thee 
For she was of the blood of Montezuma. 

THE AZTEC COUNSELOR 

king, this priest — he reviles us. 

COCIJO-PIJ 

He does not love the Aztecs, but he is a prophet, 
They love or do not love — it is one to me, 

1 fear not. 

THE AZTEC COUNSELOR 

Then ask him for the Bowl thou didst promise. 
Let me hear thee ask him, that I may know thee 
for a king. 

COCIJO-PIJ 

He is a holy prophet. 

THE AZTECS 

He is a priest who reviles Montezuma. 

COCIJO-PIJ 

holy one, I lie down as a dog in delight of 

spring. 
Because thou hast prospered me. 

1 am as water to cool the shadows for thee, 

I am as the bells of a dancer to pleasure thee, 



I am thy slave. 

My cousin, Montezuma, lord of Tenochtitlan, 

cometh to Mitla. 
He will rest under my roof and I shall make a 

feast for him. 
Is it well? 

UIJA-TAO 

It is a child's work to make a feast for a foe. 
It is a fool's feast, O King, that thou eatest with 
the Aztecs. 

COCIJO-PIJ 

Thou art wise. 
Thou art holy. 
Still, Montezuma cometh ; I must feast with him. 

UIJA-TAO 

It is a fool's feast. 

THE AZTEC COUNSELOR 

Ask him, O King, for the Bowl. 
He will wake his gods if you thou angerest him 
slowly. 

COCIJO-PIJ 

Holy one, my feast will be as dusty corn, 
It will be as salt water and dead fruits. 
If thou and thy gods favor not. 
Give me, great prophet, yon Bowl for our tables 
That our Zapotec nations may drink in splendour 
before Montezuma. 

UIJA-TAO 

This is a little thing thou askest. 

THE AZTEC COUNSELOR 

How have I told thee — ^be bold with thy priests, 
O King. 



UIJA-TAO 

It is a little thing — to profane the sacred Bowl, 

To deflower this temple, to reave away the gob- 
lets of the gods. 

It is a little thing thou askest. 

Not if Montezuma came through the little door 
on his knees. 

Not though he died with his forehead in the dust 
of this temple floor, 

Not though his spirit withered in the dry sun- 
light, 

Not though his heart of pride should smoke in 
the mouth of Cozaana, 

Should his Aztec lips touch the rim of this bowl. 

It is sacred. 

COCIJO-PIJ^ 

Holy one, I am reddened in mine eyes with 

anger : 
The great Montezuma is my brother. 

UIJA-TAO 

If thou wert Montezuma, it could not be other- 

^1^^* THE AZTEC COUNSELOR 

Give him thy gold. These priests are greedy 

^^^^; cocijo-pij 

I bring to thy gods this casket of quilled gold ; 

I bring them these flakes of turquoise; 

I bring them these draughts of quicksilver. 

Ask them to give me the Bowl. 

UIJA-TAO 

Dost thou command me, Httle King? 



COCIJO-PIJ 

There is an ancient right. Thou shalt pray for 

the King's desire: 
So runs the law. 

{Uija-tao turns to Cosaana in an at- 
titude of prayer. The Aztec points 
to the Bowl and makes signs that 
the king shall take it away. The 
King starts toward it. The Copa 
drops on his knees.) 

UIJA-TAO 

Let the hand wither, O Cozaana, 
The hand that touches the sacred Bowl, 
Let the heart break and the eyes be blinded. 
The heart and the eyes that impiously desire it. 
Let the spirit of the stealer be scathed with sun- 
light. 
Let the hand wither. 

COCIJO-PIJ 

No, no, Holy Prophet. Recall thy curse. 
Recall thy curse. 

THE AZTEC COUNSELOR 

He plays with thee. Be thou a king and a war 

chief? 
Take what is thine. 

COCIJO-PIJ 

He has put a sleep and a terror upon me. 
Lo, now I awake. 

Old priest, hear me now. I am master. 
I am King and Captain of Mitla. I am War 
Chief. 



This house of the gods is not so dark as to blind 
me, 

I am master of it. I am lord. My brother, 

The Aztec, is coming. I would drink in splen- 
dour. 

Old priest, I will take ^he Bowl. I revere the 
high gods. 

But not thee. Stand back, old priest, for my 
hands are hot for the rim 

And my throat is thirsty for the flame of it. 

Behold, the Bowl is mine. Here I claim it. 

UIJA-TAO 

Beware of the hate of the gods ! 

COCIJO-PIJ 

Beware of my hand that smites, and my arrows. 
I will go with the Bowl. 

UIJA-TAO 

Thou art Captain and King, but the gods — 

COCIJO-PIJ 

Call on thy gods. Let them stay me. 

UIJA-TAO 

Mighty King, hear me, thy prophet. 

THE AZTEC COUNSELOR 

The day of Montezuma's coming will be black for 

thee, 
And the thunder of his voice shall pierce thee. 
If thou offer him less than thy promise. 
I have sent him thy word, young King : 
He shall drink from this Bowl of the god's De- 
light. 



UIJA-TAO 

Thou wilt feast in splendours, thou child of the 

Aztec serpent. 
The lord of Tenochtitlan comes, and he feasts, 

and the beak of Huitzlil is on his brow. 
He will feast on thy kingdom. 
Stand back. Lo, I tell thee a mystery. 
I am the guardian of the Bowl. Thy father 

builded this temple to preserve it. The glory 

of our people shines in it. 
Long ago came the pale god, mighty Quetzal, 
And he made the earth to bloom and the streams 

to gleam with silver, and the skies to bless 

our nations. 
He was prophet and king and god. He was holy. 
He gathered the winds and the rains in his hand 

and he mastered them. He was a maker of 

gods. Then he vanished. 

He drank from this Bowl, and was drunken with 
love and delight and his vows were for- 
gotten. 

He awoke and the doom was upon him. 

He went down to the sea and sailed in a canoe 
of serpent skins into the sunrise. 

He arose as a star in the morning — withered and 
chilled to the star of the morning. 

Thou wouldst take for thy feastings his Bowl, for 
thine insolent feast with the Aztec King? 



Thou groveller, what are thy feasts to the kiss 
of his lips in the dawning? 

What are thy guests to the gods who feast here 
in this temple? 

Thou shalt bring us thy meats and thy fruits. 
We shall drink the dark wine of thy splen- 
dours. 

Thou shalt send me the riches of thy table, and 
thy daughters, thy maidens shall serve me: 

Thou, who art dust, who art sin, who art mortal. 

Go, King, with thy slaves, and bring in thy King- 
dom to appease the insulted gods. 

COCIJO-PIJ 

I go with the Bowl of Quetzal, O Prophet. 

{He steps forward and the priest 
leaps up by the altar.) 

UIJA-TAO 

Thy father's spirit leaps in the air, an ocelot in 

the night. 
Stand back. Thus I give thee the splendour of 
Quetzal. 

{He lifts the Bozvl above his head and 
hurls it dozvn upon the temple floor. 
The lights vanish zvith the crash. 
The sound falls away tinkling into 
silence. A knock is heard and re- 
peated. The lights come on and 
the scene is as in Scene I. The Ar- 
tificer wakes, groping above the 
Bowl.) 



ARTIFICER 

Cozaana — Pitao — Cozaana. Oh, Huichaana. 

(Enter the Antiquarian.) 
And yet it is not broken ! 

ANTIQUARIAN 

I beg your pardon ! 

ARTIFICER ^ 

Are you a priest sent from Mitla? 

ANTIQUARIAN 

I am an absent minded old fellow with a habit 
of leaving my only umbrella when I make calls. 

ARTIFICER 

You have come back. I knew you would come 
back. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

For the umbrella. Here it is. So sorry to have 
disturbed you a second time. Goodnight. 

ARTIFICER 

Wait, wait. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

Well? 

ARTIFICER 

You are going away without it. You are going 
away without it a second time. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

The umbrella? You see I have it in my hand. 

ARTIFICER 

No, no ! The Bowl ! The Bowl ! 

ANTIQUARIAN 
Ah. 

ARTIFICER 

The Bowl of Quetzal ! There has been wine in 
the Bowl. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

Ah, there has been wine in the Bowl? 



ARTIFICER 

I tell you, I have seen your forgotten gods with 
the terrible names. I have heard the drums and 
the cymbals. I have stood before the stone which 
bars the way to the place of the resting of the 
winds. You must take the Bowl. 

ANTIQUARIAN 

Have you forgotten that it is the property of your 
Museum, your wonderful, your instructive, your 
zealous Museum? 

ARTIFICER 

No! But I have been shown that it can be put 
to nobler use. You shall, as you desire, dedicate 
this Bowl to the uses of cheer and good fellow- 
ship; its imprisoned dreams shall inspire your 
circle of poets, painters, builders of temples and 
makers of music. Take it! Take it! 

ANTIQUARIAN 

You are wise; you are right! This bowl of 
Quetzal shall be the property of the Dreamers of 
the West. 

CURTAIN 



AS THE CURTAIN FALLS THE 
ANTIQUARIAN COMES BEFORE IT 
AND PRESENTS THE BOWL TO THE 
PRESIDENT OF THE CLUB. 



)C1 








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